Severity of Rotavirus Diarrhea in Children: One Year Experience in a Children Hospital of Bangladesh.

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the hospital prevalence, clinical severity and treatment outcome of rotavirus versus non-rotavirus diarrhea in children attending a secondary level children hospital of Bangladesh. Methods: Total 601 children aged from 1 month to 5 years with watery diarrhea were enrolled and their stool samples were analyzed by ELISA for rotavirus antigen. Findings: Totally, 41.8% of the stool samples were ELISA positive for rotavirus. Sixty-four percent Rota positive patients and 60.85% of non-Rota patients were treated at outpatient department. The mean age ((plus-minus)SD) of the patients was 12.06(plus-minus)9.85 months. Second half of infancy showed highest prevalence (38.6%) of rotavirus gastroenteritis. Vomiting was significantly higher in rotavirus diarrhea than non-Rota diarrhea (P=0.001). Dehydration status ranged from mild to moderate in 83% of Rota and 80% of non-Rota group. Amongthe hospitalized patients,majority of Rota and non-Rota (98.8% 94.6% respectively) patients recovered uneventfully. There were six deaths, two in rotavirus group and four in non-rotavirus group. Conclusion: Despite high prevalence of Rotavirus diarrhea in Bangladesh, majority of this illness can be managed at home and/or in primary health care centers, since clinical severity and outcome of rota virus diarrhea remains similar to that of non-rotavirus diarrhea. This message is expected to reduce frequent and sometimes un-necessary referral of diarrhea patients to higher centers thereby saving the working hours of the attending parents as well as disease burden to children hospitals having limited beds against the huge demand.