Prevalence of adenovirus, astrovirus and rotavirus diarrhoea in children infected with human immunodeficiency virus in Nairobi, Kenya
Abstract
Diarrhoea is one of the commonest symptoms of disease in children. In some communities
25% of children younger than one year may suffer from diarrhoea episodes in any two-week
period. Worldwide, each child under five years of age may suffer an average of 3 episodes of
diarrhoea per year. Majority of these diarrhoeal cases are due to acute self-limiting intestinal
viral infection and can be successfully managed without recourse to health services. However
HIV predisposes infected persons to intestinal infection with various pathogens leading to
persisting severe diarrhoea. The present study evaluated the viral causes of diarrhoea in
children with HIV and compared them with children with unknown HIV status. Between
February 1999 and June 2000 stool samples were collected from 113 HIV positive children
and 94 samples from children with unknown HIV status suffering from diarrhoea. The
samples were assayed for astrovirus, adenovirus and rotavirus, three common causes of
severe diarrhoea in young children. Antiviral antibody ELISA was used to screen the three
viruses, but further characterisation of rotavirus was done using SDS-PAGE, VP6 subgroup
antibody ELISA, VP7 monoclonal antibody ELISA and RT-PCR for genotyping of VP7 and
VP4 genes. The results showed that the incidences of adenovirus, astrovirus and rotavirus did
not vary significantly in HIV infected and uninfected children. Astrovirus was also shown to
be an important cause of diarrhoea in children in Kenya (5.8%). The main rotavirus
genotypes in children, (G3P[6] and G8P[6]) differed from the predominant types known
(G 1P[8]). This shows that the important genotype pairs that are responsible for diarrhoea in
Kenya differ from those that are important in causing diarrhoea in most parts of the world.
This has significant implications in vaccine development since this requires knowledge of the
molecular characteristics of circulating strains within a regions population.
Citation
Master of Science degree in Veterinary Pathology and MicrobiologyPublisher
University of Nairobi Department of veterinary pathology and microbiology,