The prevalence of human rotavirus infection in children with acute diarrhoea in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

This was a study on prevalence of human rotavirus (HRV) as the aetiology of childhood diarrhoea in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 99 cases and 99 referents. There was a prevalence of HRV in 43.4% of the cases and in 15.2% of the referents. These findings have strengthened the findings in other countries that HRV is a major cause of acute childhood diarrhoea. The rather high prevalence of HRV in the referents may be important in deciding on control measures against infection with the HRV. However there was a significant association between the presence of HRV in stool specimens and development of diarrhoea(chi = 17.04, P<0.001). The children who were found to have HRV in their stool specimens were also found to have a significant level of serum IgG antibodies to HRV and insignificant level of serum IgA, IgM and stool IgA antibodies to HRV. Breast feeding did not have any effect on the prevalence of HRV infection in the study population. Time of weaning or type of weaning foods did not have any relationship to presence of HRV infection. Slidex agglutination test was found to be more specific than rotalex agglutination test in the detection of HRV in stool samples. The slidex results were comparable to results obtained by electron microscopy. Electropherotyping showed that the prevalent HRV types in Tanzania could be differentiated from each other, suggesting that there were several strains of HRV involved in the causation of HRV in Tanzania. Electropherotyping showed that Tanzanian HRV strains were different from Norwegian strains. Further larger studies covering all weather conditions on the epidemiology of HRV in the country including additional matched case/ referent groups are necessary in order to come up with possible disease control measures. Latex agglutination tests are recommended in the laboratory in Tanzania as routine diagnostic procedure to aid clinicians in the management of children with acute diarrhoea.