Detection and characterization of human rotavirus in hospitalized patients in the cities of Ponta Grossa, Londrina and Assai - PR, Brazil.

UNLABELLED: Acute diarrheal disease is still one of the major public health problems worldwide. Rotaviruses (RV) are the most important viral etiologic agents and children under five years of age are the target population. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the rate of RV infection in hospitalized patients due to acute diarrhea in the cities of Ponta Grossa, Londrina and Assai - Paraná. METHODS: Latex agglutination (LA); immunochromatography (ICG); polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and negative staining electron microscopy (ME) tests were used to detect the virus. For the genotyping, RT-PCR and RT-PCR-ELISA were used, respectively, for NSP4 and VP4/VP7. RESULT: Out of 124 samples there were 69 positive stool samples for RV, for at least one of the used tests, 67 of them being RV group A (RV-A). Overall, most of the RV positive stool samples came from children under thirteen years of age. However, 12 positive cases occurred in patients aged 13 years or above, including an 81-year old patient. CONCLUSION: The data showed similar electropherotypes and genotypes G, P and NSP4 of the inland wild circulating strains of RV.

Rotavirus diarrhea in children and adults in a southern city of Brazil in 2003: distribution of G/P types and finding of a rare G12 strain.

Between May and August in 2003, a total of 251 fecal samples were collected from children and adults with diarrhea (5 inpatients and 246 outpatients) at a private hospital in the city of Ponta Grossa, the state of Paraná, Brazil. Group A rotavirus was detected in 71 of 251 (28.3%) specimens: 55 (77.5%) from children under 5 years of age and 16 (22.5%) from individuals aged 6-72 years. All 71 strains exhibited a "long" RNA pattern when analyzed by PAGE. Sixty-one positive samples that yielded enough RNA were submitted to PCR genotyping. The most frequent G/P genotype combination detected was G1P[8] (86.9%; 53/61) followed by G9P[8] (3.3%; 2/61) and G12P[9] (1.6%; 1/61). Rotaviruses with G2, G3, G4, P[4], or P[6] specificity were not detected. For three strains (4.9%) bearing G1 genotype, the VP4 specificity could no be determined, and two specimens (3.3%) remained G/P non-typeable. One rotavirus strain (HC91) bearing G12P[9] genotype with a "long" electropherotype was isolated from an 11-month-old boy with diarrhea for the first time in Brazil. The cell-culture grown HC91 strain was shown to belong to serotype G12 by neutralization.

Detection and characterization of human rotavirus in hospitalized patients in the cities of Ponta Grossa, Londrina and Assai - PR, Brazil

Acute diarrheal disease is still one of the major public health problems worldwide. Rotaviruses (RV) are the most important viral etiologic agents and children under five years of age are the target population. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the rate of RV infection in hospitalized patients due to acute diarrhea in the cities of Ponta Grossa, Londrina and Assai - Paraná. METHODS: Latex agglutination (LA); immunochromatography (ICG); polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and negative staining electron microscopy (ME) tests were used to detect the virus. For the genotyping, RT-PCR and RT-PCR-ELISA were used, respectively, for NSP4 and VP4/VP7. RESULT: Out of 124 samples there were 69 positive stool samples for RV, for at least one of the used tests, 67 of them being RV group A (RV-A). Overall, most of the RV positive stool samples came from children under thirteen years of age. However, 12 positive cases occurred in patients aged 13 years or above, including an 81-year old patient. CONCLUSION: The data showed similar electropherotypes and genotypes G, P and NSP4 of the inland wild circulating strains of RV.