Abstract
Rotavirus was the an important causative agent of acute gastroenteritis in children. In China, rotavirus was positive in approximately 30% of the diarrhea children and become a serious public problem. This study was carried out to investigate the clinical and molecular epidemic characterization of rotavirus infection among children under 5 years old with acute diarrhea in Shandong province, China. From July 2017 to June 2018, a total of 1211 fecal specimens were detected and the prevalence of rotavirus infection was 32.12%. The mean age of positive children was 12.2 ± 10.9 months and the highest infection rate was observed in children aged 7–12 months with a rate of 41.64%. G9P[8] (76.61%) was the most prevalent combinations followed by G2P[4] (7.20%), G3P[8] (3.60%) and G9P[4] (2.06%). In addition to diarrhea, vomiting, fever and dehydration were the most common accompanied symptoms. In general, there was no significant difference in clinical manifestations among different age groups. However, the clinical manifestations between vaccinated and unvaccinated children were significantly different. Vaccinated children showed lower incidence and frequency of vomiting, lower incidence and degree of dehydration, lower incidence of severe cases than unvaccinated children. The findings suggested necessary to continue rotavirus strains surveillance in order to monitor the change of prevalent genotype. Moreover, introducing vaccine into national immunization program to prevent and control rotavirus infections is needed in China.