ARTICLE AUTHORS
ARTICLE INFO
academic journalism

Epidemiological Surveillance of Norovirus Diarrhea in Hospitalized Children with Acute Gastroenteritis in South of Iran

AUTHORS

avatar Akram Najafi 2 , avatar Darioush Iranpour 3 , * , avatar Shariat Najafi 2

2 Department of Virology, The Persian Gulf Tropical Medicine Research Center. Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, IR Iran

3 Department of Internal Medicine of Bushehr University of Medical Science, Bushehr, IR Iran

How to Cite: Najafi A, Iranpour D, Najafi S. Epidemiological Surveillance of Norovirus Diarrhea in Hospitalized Children with Acute Gastroenteritis in South of Iran. Jundishapur J Microbiol.6(4):7866.
doi: 10.5812/jjm.7866.

ARTICLE INFORMATION

Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology: 6 (4); 7866
Published Online: May 31, 2013
Article Type: Research Article
Received: August 22, 2012
Accepted: January 16, 2013
DOI: 10.5812/jjm.7866
Crossmark
Crossmark
CHECKING
READ FULL TEXT

Abstract

Background:

Noroviruses are one of the most common causes of acute diarrhea in both developed and developing countries. They are responsible for more than 50% of all gastroenteritis outbreaks around the world.

Objectives:

This study was conducted to assess the prevalence, seasonality and clinical characteristics of norovirus infection in hospitalized Iranian children.

Patients and Methods:

Between 2008 and 2010, a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 375 stool samples from children under 7 years of age, who suffered from acute gastroenteritis and who were admitted to the Pediatrics Unit of the 17 Shahrivar Hospital in the city of Borazjan. Acute gastroenteritis was defined as > 3 loose watery stools every 24 hours. All the stool specimens were tested for norovirus antigens with enzyme immunoassays (EIA). Demographic and clinical data were analyzed using SPSS software.

Results:

Of the total collected samples, noroviruses were detected in 47 out of 375 (12.53%). The highest infection rate was among children under two years of age (76.6%) (P = 0.001). Diarrhea (95.74%), vomiting (87.23%) and fever (82.98%) were the most frequently reported clinical symptoms in children with norovirus gastroenteritis. The highest prevalence of the virus was observed in autumn (63.83%) and the lowest in summer (6.38%) (P = 0.015).

Conclusions:

Regarding the emergence of noroviruses as a relevant cause of acute diarrhea in Iranian children, there is a great need to introduce a routine norovirus testing of hospitalized patients with gastroenteritis, particularly in children under 2 years old during the cold season.

Full Text

Full text is available in PDF

© 2013, Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.
COMMENTS

LEAVE A COMMENT HERE: