ABSTRACT
Study of the etiologic spectrum of sporadic cases of causative agents of acute enteric infections (AEI) in 753 patients aged 15-85 years old using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed in the infectious diseases hospital during 12 months. It was shown that detection of the causative agents of AEI by PCR was 2.2 times more effective than routine microbiologic diagnostics supplemented with test of feces on rotavirus by ELISA method and allowed to detect etiologic agent in 54.3% of the patients. Viral etiology of AEI was determined in 22.6% of the patients. The most significant causative agents of AEI comparable on the rate of detection with salmonella and shigella were genotype 2 noroviruses and group A rotaviruses which were isolated in 10.4 and 8.9% of the patients respectively. Seasonal change of dominating viral pathogens causing diarrheal diseases was noted: predominance of group A rotaviruses during winter-spring period, noroviruses--during spring-summer months, and astroviruses--during fall and in the beginning of winter.
