Astrovirus infection in hospitalized children: Molecular, clinical and epidemiological features.
J Clin Virol
; 94: 79-85, 2017 09.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28772169
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Astrovirus (HAstV) is a common viral pathogen that causes gastroenteritis worldwide. It is classified into eight classical human types (HAstV-1/8) and seven other less prevalent types, described as HAstV VA1, VA2, VA3, VA4, MLB-1, MLB-2 and MLB-3. During outbreaks, the elderly and children are the most affected, and the spread of the virus is associated with person-to-person contact, food ingestion and contaminated water.OBJECTIVES:
The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of infection and genetic diversity of HAstV strains. Samples were collected from children with acute gastroenteritis admitted to a large pediatric hospital during a surveillance period of three years (2008-2011) in Belém city, Pará State, Amazon Region, Northern Brazil. STUDYDESIGN:
Screening and genotyping tests were conducted using RT-PCR to detect the classical and non-classical HAstV types using specific primers. A semi-nested RT-PCR protocol was developed to improve viral detection in samples with a low viral load.RESULTS:
The overall positivity observed in this study was 3.9% (19/483). The age distribution showed a high prevalence of positive cases in children under one year old (5.3%). We found vomiting associated with 75% of the positive cases, fever with 82.3%, and dehydration with 76.9%. Most patients with positive cases demonstrated two to five days of diarrhea, two to three episodes of vomiting during hospitalization, and three bowel movements per day. Co-infection with HAstV and norovirus was observed in three cases (15.8%), and no pattern of seasonality or any relationship between the HAstV positivity rate and climate variables was observed. Eighteen positive samples (94.7%-18/19) were genotyped based on the ORF 2 region, and the greatest prevalence was of HAstV-1a (66.6%-12/18), followed by HAstV-2 (22.2%-4/18, comprising two type-2b and two type-2c genotypes), HAstV-3c (5.6%-1/18) and HAstV-4c (5.6%-1/18). No non-classical types were detected in the clinical samples analyzed.CONCLUSIONS:
The present study showed that although HAstV infections occur at low frequency, they are involved in severe pediatric cases of acute gastroenteritis presenting with a high diversity of strains, including the lineages 3c and 4c, which were never before detected in Brazil.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Astroviridae
/
Astroviridae Infections
/
Gastroenteritis
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Guideline
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Child, preschool
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Newborn
Country/Region as subject:
America do sul
/
Brasil
Language:
En
Journal:
J Clin Virol
Journal subject:
VIROLOGIA
Year:
2017
Document type:
Article