Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, Nguyen Van Tam, Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan
Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh city
Rotavirus is a common agent causing diarrhea without special
treatments, except the rehydration therapy. The objective of this study was to
evaluate the role of rotavirus in diarrhoeal diseases of children under five
years of age living in the Mekong delta area
(1993-1997). ELISA method was applied for detecting rotavirus in stools. The
results showed that the identification rate of rotavirus on acute diarrheal
cases detected from home visits was 6.5% (32/494 specimens), on acute diarrheal
cases hospitalized was 22.4% (15/67 specimens) and on persistent diarrhea cases
hospitalized was 11% (10/91 specimens). Rotavirus was also identified in
healthy children (0.7%). Rotavirus identification rate was higher in infants
than in children over one year of age; no difference was found between
malnutrition children and normal children and the rate was higher in the dry
season (November, December, Jannuary, February, March).