Prevalence and genetic diversity of gastroenteritis viruses in hospitalized children < 5 years of age in Maharashtra state, Western India, 2017-2019.

Four gastroenteritis viruses were responsible for 54% of the acute gastroenteritis (AGE) cases in children hospitalized between May 2017 and December 2019 in Pune city of Maharashtra state, Western India. The majority (79%) of the children were < 2 years of age. The prevalence of Rotavirus A was 30.5% followed by 14.3% for norovirus, 8.4% for adenovirus and 5.5% for astrovirus. Severity of the disease was highest in patients with co-infections compared to the patients with single infection or negative for all (p=0.024). Genotyping analysis showed that the majority of the RVA positive samples (66%) could be typed as G3P[8], 63.6% of the norovirus as GII.4 Sydney [P16], 44% of the adenovirus as type 41 and 56.2 % of the astrovirus as astrovirus type 1. The almost equivalent prevalence of rotavirus and non-rotaviruses and AGE cases without known etiology in around 46% of the cases was noted in the present study. Our data highlight that after the recent inclusion of rotavirus vaccines as a part of the National Immunization schedule in India, conducting extensive AGE surveillance in children should include non-rotaviruses such as norovirus. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.