ABSTRACT
Background: Diarrhoea is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in developing countries including Nigeria. Rotavirus is a leading cause of acute watery diarrhoea in children under 5 years of age. Aims: The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of rotavirus diarrhoea in children less than 5 years old presenting with watery diarrhoea at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. The cross-sectional study was carried out at University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), a referral tertiary centre for northeast Nigeria and neighbouring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger Republic. Study population were children under five presenting to UMTH with acute diarrhoea. Freshly passed stool was collected from each participant in a universal sterile container and transported to the department of medical microbiology laboratory UMTH, Rotavirus antigen was detected using Rota - dipstick an immunochromatographic test. The positive samples were subjected to RT-PCR to detect the VP 7 gene of the dsRNA. Patients and Methods: SPSS Version 25. Results: The prevalence was found to be 14.5% in the population studied and was highest among children below 1 year of age. Conclusions: This study has confirmed that rotavirus is an important cause of childhood diarrhoea. The burden of childhood diarrhoea can be reduced by introduction of vaccines, and children of 1 year old and younger will benefit from this vaccine as most study participants have not been vaccinated. Creating awareness on prevention and control of this infection with mass vaccination will go a long way in reducing the prevalence and mortality rate of rotavirus diarrhoea.
