Rotavirus infection epidemiology and demographics
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Ahmed Elsaiey, MBBCH [2]
Overvieiw
Epidemiology and demographics
Target populations and frequency
Age
Group A rotavirus is endemic worldwide. It is the leading cause of severe diarrhea among infants and children, being responsible for about 20% of cases, and accounts for about half of the cases requiring hospitalization. Almost every child has been infected with rotavirus by age 5. Over 3 million cases of rotavirus gastroenteritis occur annually in the U.S. In temperate areas, it occurs primarily in the winter, but in the tropics it occurs throughout the year. The number attributable to food contamination is unknown.
Group B rotavirus, also called adult diarrhea rotavirus or ADRV, has caused major epidemics of severe diarrhea affecting thousands of persons of all ages in China. In a group B epidemic in China in 1982, more than a million people were affected. Group B rotavirus has also been identified after the Chinese epidemics from Calcutta, India in 1998 and this strain was named CAL. Unlike ADRV, the CAL strain is endemic and does not cause known epidemics.
Group C rotavirus has been associated with rare and sporadic cases of diarrhea in children in many countries. However, the first outbreaks were reported from Japan and England.
About 120 million rotavirus infections occur every year, causing the death of 600,000 to 650,000 children.