Low Endemic Frequency of Adenovirus, Rotavirus and Norovirus in Pediatric Diarrhea Samples from Central Iran
Abstract Background: Acute viral gastroenteritis is a disorder that affects children on a worldwide scale but mostly in developing countries. Adenoviruses, rotaviruses, and noroviruses are the major viral cause of childhood gastroenteritis. This study is the first to investigate the prevalence of these viruses in diarrhea samples from pediatric patients living in central Iran.Methods: A total of 173 samples of pediatric diarrhea, from May 2015 to May 2016, was included in this descriptive cross-sectional study. The samples were analyzed using in-house developed PCR and reverse transcription (RT) -PCR methods to investigate the prevalence of adeno-, rota- and noroviruses. Results: Out of 173 samples of pediatric diarrhea, eight were shown to contain enteric viruses (4.6%): four of these were adenovirus (2.3%), three were rotavirus (1.7%), and one represented a genogroup II norovirus (0.6%). Most of the positive samples were obtained from children under the age of seven. The most common additional clinical symptoms in pediatric patients with viral agents were fever, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Conclusions: Adenovirus and rotavirus were rarely found as agents responsible for gastroenteritis in central Iran. Although we show that the frequency of viral gastroenteritis is low in this area compared to bacterial gastroenteritis, still longer-term monitoring of all enteropathogenic agents should provide a deeper understanding of the real endemicity and the possible occurrence of unexpected outbreaks of viral enteritis.