Identification of human astrovirus infections among children with acute gastroenteritis in the Southern Part of Vietnam during 2005–2006

Abstract

A molecular epidemiological study on common diarrheal viruses was conducted in a children's hospital in Ho Chi Minh City between December 2005 and November 2006. Fecal samples were collected from 502 pediatric patients with acute gastroenteritis, and were screened for eight types of viral agents. Human astroviruses (HAstVs), which were detected with a prevalence of 13.9%, became the second most frequent viral enteropathogen. Although detected in both dry and rainy seasons, the majority (92.8%) of HAstVs in this study were found in the rainy season. Patients aged between 6 and 23 months were found to be more infected from astrovirus when compared to other age groups. The ratio between boys and girls was 2.3:1. The overall mean severity score of astrovirus positive patients was 11.8 +/- 2.45. The mean severity score of the inpatients was statistically higher than that of the outpatients; however, there was no difference in severity scores between the age groups observed. The clinical manifestations of astrovirus infections among the Vietnamese children were diarrhea, vomiting, fever, coughing, and coryza. All of the detected astroviruses belonged to genotype 1. The phylogenetic tree clearly indicated that HAstVs-1 worldwide could be classified into four different lineages, in which, Vietnamese astroviruses and other recently isolated strains from other countries clustered into the distinct lineage, 1d. These results provide important information on astrovirus infections among Vietnamese children.

Human Astroviruses

“…In addition, astrovirus gastroenteritis may also affect healthy adults (88,89,207). The age of children infected with classic HAstV is highly variable, ranging from newborns to over 5 years (33,164,167,(237)(238)(239)(240)(241)(242)(243); however, infection is more common among those younger than 2.…”

“…Table 3 shows the prevalence of classic HAstV serotypes worldwide. Overall, HAstV-1 is the most frequently isolated type (35,164,237,241,250,256,(265)(266)(267)(268). However, there are exceptions, such as in one study conducted in Mexico (238) in which HAstV-2 was reported to be the most prevalent.…”

Molecular characterization and multiple infections of rotavirus, norovirus, sapovirus, astrovirus and adenovirus in outpatients with sporadic gastroenteritis in Shanghai, China, 2010–2011

“…HAdV typically accounts for 0.4 % to 17.6 % of acute gastroenteritis in children, and the detection rate is higher in developing countries than in developed countries [10][11][12][13][14]. The severity of human astrovirus (HAstV) diarrhea is much less than that observed with RV because of the shorter duration of vomiting and diarrhea, and its prevalence rate in sporadic cases varies from 3.2 % to 14 % in different regions [10,12,[14][15][16][17][18].…”

Novel human astroviruses: challenges for developing countries

“…Gradually, specific tools were developed for the detection and genome-based identification of astroviruses from a wide variety of hosts [5]. The morbidity of astrovirus infection depends upon the season; a higher infection rate was reported during the winter season in temperate regions and rainy season in tropical regions [26]. In developing countries with tropical climate and poor sanitation, a higher prevalence of astrovirus infections was observed during the rainy season.…”