Rotavirus and adenovirus in 0- to 5-year-old children hospitalized with or without gastroenteritis in Goiâna, GO, Brazil

In order to detect rotavirus and adenovirus 557 feces samples from hospitalized children (0-5 years of age) were analysed from June 1987 to July 1990 in Goiânia city. Two hundred and ninety one samples were from children with diarrhoea and 266 were from children without diarrhoea. Amongst this later group, 64 samples were from children from the nursery. Two hundred and sixty one out of 557 samples were analysed by immunoelectron microscopy (IEM), polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and enzymatic immunoassay for rotavirus and adenovirus (EIARA) whereas the rest (296 samples) were analysed by SDS-PAGE and EIARA. Positivity of rotavirus and adenovirus was 17.2% and 2.1% respectively. Concerning rotavirus and adenovirus there was 29.2% and 2.4% positivity within the group with diarrhoea and 4.1% and 1.5% positivity amongst children without diarrhoea (p < 0.05). Rotavirus were more prevalent amongst children which age ranged from 1 to 11 months of age. No newborn child from the nursery was positive for rotavirus. Adenovirus were detected amongst children from 1 to 3 years of age. Rotavirus circulation peak occurred between May and August (p < 0.05) and no positive case was detected from December to February. Two hundred out of 291 diarrheic samples were also studied concerning bacteria and pathogenic parasites and equal percentages (17.0%) were found for both rotavirus and pathogenic bacteria. Eighty nine samples of rotavirus were detected by SDS-PAGE and 86 of these (96.6%) belonged to the subgroup II with 13 different electrophoretic patterns. Predominance of a given electrophoretic profile was observed in each year of the study.