Ann Lab Med.  2014 Mar;34(2):145-147. 10.3343/alm.2014.34.2.145.

Prevalence of Human Astrovirus in Patients with Acute Gastroenteritis

• Ham H
• Oh S
• Jang J
• Jo S
• Choi S
• Pak S

• KMID: 1791908
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2014.34.2.145

Abstract

The prevalence of human astroviruses was tested in patients with acute gastroenteritis by using conventional duplex reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and electrophoresis. Diarrheal fecal samples were collected from 9,597 patients at local hospitals in Seoul. The prevalence of astroviruses was 1.0% (94/9,597 patients; mostly infants), and that of sapoviruses was 0.1% (14/9,597 patients). Age- and gender-wise analyses were carried out on 29 astrovirus-positive patients having complete information on file regarding their age, gender, and other particulars. The results were higher in patients of ages 0 to 14 yr, and 69.0% of the astrovirus-positive patients were females, of which 69.2% were infants (0 to 12 months), and 61.5% were 1-4 yr old. Notably, in the case of 5 to 78-yr-old acute gastroenteritis patients, 100% were females.

Keyword

Astrovirus; Prevalence; Acute gastroenteritis; Infants

MeSH Terms

Acute Disease
Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Astroviridae Infections/complications/*epidemiology/virology
Child
Child, Preschool
DNA, Viral/analysis
Feces/virology
Female
Gastroenteritis/complications/*diagnosis
Humans
Infant
Male
Mamastrovirus/genetics/*isolation & purification
Middle Aged
Prevalence
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Sapovirus/genetics/isolation & purification
Sex Factors
Young Adult
DNA, Viral

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Monthly distribution of astroviruses from 9,597 patients with acute gastroenteritis from 2008 to 2012 in Seoul by periodic surveillance.

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