Isolation and molecular genotyping of group a rotavirus strains circulating among egyptian infants and children

ABSTRACT

Group A rotaviruses are the most important cause of"acute 'diarrhea in o children throughout the world. They are the cause of more than 450,000 annual deaths. There are few data available about rotavirus types circulating in Egypt. Genotyping by reverse transcription- CR [RT-PCR] has been widely used to analyse circulating strains. This study comprised 450 stool specimens* collected from, children,, less than 5 years old suffering from acute diarrhea, from three different governorates in Egypt -[Cairo, Sharkia and Fayoum) from May 2009 to April 2010. Rotavims was detected by RT-PCR in 158 [35%] of patients stool samples. Gl was the predominant genotype detected in 87/158 cases [55%]. G3 was the second most common cause and was responsible for 35 cases [22.2%], whereas 04 represented only 8.2% [13/158] of all strains. Our study identified G9 in 23 [14.5%] of positive cases. No untypeabte strains were detected and mixed infections behveen Gl and G4 in 1.9% [3/158] of the samples were detected. G8, G2 were not detected among collected samples. These results underline the importance of continued detailed epidemiological and virological studies to identify rotavirus genotypes responsible for severe diarrhea, including characterization of the less common and or unusual strains. Focusing on the more prevalent strains circulating in the Egyptian community will aid in assessing the most suitable strain candidates used for vaccine production to protect against current circulating and uncommon strains, also for evaluation of cross immuno genie ity among variable strains?