Molecular Detection of Group A Rotavirus in under Five Years Old Children with Acute Diarrhoea Admitted to Yangon Children’s Hospital

Rotaviruses are regarded as the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis and are responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality among children especially under five years of age worldwide. In developing countries like Myanmar, where diarrhoea is in the priority childhood disease, rotavirus surveillance and detection of rotavirus genotypes are utmost important. A hospital-based, cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at Yangon Children‟s Hospital among under five children admitted for acute diarrhoea from January to October 2016. This study includes detection of Group A rotavirus antigen by commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and genotyping by multiplex RT-PCR. From a total of 488 collected samples, rotavirus antigen was detected in 219 samples (45%). Rotavirus diarrhoea was most common among the age of 6-11 months (38.8%) followed by 12-23 months (37.9%). The results showed that boys were more commonly affected than girls. Detection of rotavirus positivity was peak in February (57.6 %). Out of 219 stool samples with positive ELISA result, 40 stool samples with high optical density value were proceeded for further determination of G and P genotypes. Regarding distribution of G genotypes, the most common G genotype was G9 which comprised 45%, and that of P genotype was P[8] which comprised 92.5%. Regarding combination of G and P genotypes, the most frequent combination is G9P[8], and it constituted 42.5%. Untypable genotypes were seen in 30% of G and 2.5% of P typing. As rotavirus infection can be prevented by vaccine, WHO recommended that rotavirus vaccination should be included in national immunization program especially in countries where prevalence of rotavirus is high. The distribution of G and P genotypes is important in consideration of appropriate vaccine in pre-vaccination and evaluation of effectiveness of vaccine in post-vaccination period. Therefore, the information on currently circulating genotypes of rotavirus in this study will serve as valuable data for vaccination programme.