Astrovirus and Rotavirus Co-Infections in Children With Gastroenteritis who Were Referred to Ahvaz Aboozar Hospital, Southern Iran

Background: acute gastroenteritis, which is one of the most common diseases in humans,is responsible for many illnesses in both children and adults. group a rotaviruses are consid- ered the main agents of gastroenteritis, and these are followed by calciviruses, adenoviruses, and astroviruses. objectives: the aim of this study was to determine the rate of astrovirus and rotavirus coinfec- tion among children up to 5 years of age who had gastroenteritis and who were referred to ahvaz aboozar hospital. patients and methods: a total of 180 stool specimens, which were collected from children with gastroenteritis who were less than 5 years old and who were referred to ahvaz aboozar hospital, were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methods for the detection of rotavirus infections. detection of astroviruses in positive rotavirus stool specimens was per- formed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr) methods. results: fifty-nine of the 180 samples were positive for rotavirus infection. these positive samples were subjected to rt-pcr to test forastrovirus. after rt-pcr with specific astrovirus primer sets, 8 samples were positive for astrovirus as well. therefore, 13% of rotavirus-positive samples were also positive for astrovirus. conclusions: group a rotaviruses, in addition tocalciviruses, adenoviruses, and astroviruses, can cause acute gastroenteritis. studies have shown that 2.5 million deaths occur every year from gastroenteritis. in this study, we found that the prevalence of rotavirus infections was very high and that of coinfections of rotavirus and astrovirus were considerable. in order to reduce the risk of infections and to eliminate viral gastroenteritis in this zone of the region, education, vaccinations, and improved personal hygiene must be improved.