Viral Gastroenteritis Prevalence in Iranian Pediatric Population: A Systematic Review

Background: Viral gastroenteritis infection, a prevalent condition in adolescents and children, is still a rigid and serious problem among humans. This disease is responsible for up to three million fatalities nationwide. noroviruses, rotaviruses, astroviruses, adenoviruses, and sapoviruses are the most common and well-known pathogens associated with viral gastroenteritis agents. In this systematic review, we extracted all original articles and data on viral gastroenteritis that were performed on the Iranian pediatric population. Methods: To investigate the viral agent pathogens of gastroenteritis in Iran, 48 articles on the identification of viral gastroenteritis were gathered from the existing data. Viral gastroenteritis was detected in fourteen provinces, including the southern and northern parts of Iran. The seasonal distribution in Iran was analyzed as well. Finally, all the data from 1978-2021, along with their detailed information, were summarized, including the number of patients, the number of positive cases, applied technics, and the region of the studied cases in Iran. Results: Based on the results, most of the viral detection was associated with Rotavirus, the major pathogen responsible for gastroenteritis disease, followed by Adenovirus, Norovirus, Parechovirus, Bocavirus, Astrovirus, Aichivirus, Sapovirus, and three case reports of SARS-CoV-2 that were associated with viral gastroenteritis. Conclusion: Different studies conducted over Iran, including the northern, southern, and central regions, were obtained based on the data. Most studies had been merely dedicated to rotavirus, which had the highest prevalence of all other viral gastroenteritis. Our review clearly demonstrated that Rotavirus genotype G1P [8] is the dominating sereotype among the other studied gastroenteritis viral agents in Iran in which the most frequency rate was during the winter (44.26%), while the least frequency rate was observed during summer (8.96%).