• Zainab Waggie, Anthony Hawkridge, and Gregory D Hussey.
• Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Zainab.Waggie@uct.ac.za
• J. Infect. Dis. 2010 Sep 1; 202 Suppl: S23-33.

BackgroundRotavirus is a common cause of severe diarrheal disease in children worldwide. Ninety percent of the associated deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. Our aim was to review the prevalence of rotavirus infection in Africa over the past 30 years.MethodsEligible studies were identified from 3 Medline searches. Only studies including children <5 years of age that included >50 children and had an observational period >3 months were included. The data were analyzed during 3 periods (1976-1985, 1986-1995, and 1996-2006), as a summary (1976-2006), and by different study settings (ie, hospital, outpatient department, and combined).ResultsThe initial search identified 206 studies from 27 countries during 1976-2006. The refined search yielded 101 studies, of which 58 (57%) were hospital based, 25 (25%) were outpatient studies, and 18 (18%) were combined. Rotavirus was detected in 25% (interquartile range, 16%-32%) of stool samples. Rotavirus was the most common agent identified in 73% of studies in which multiple diarrheal agents were determined.ConclusionRotavirus is an important cause of severe diarrheal disease in children <5 years of age in Africa. Clinical trials in South Africa and Malawi have shown that severe rotavirus disease is a vaccine-preventable entity in Africa.

14 keywords...

hide…