0000000000306354
AUTHOR
Fm Ruggeri
Molecular characterization of rotavirus strains from children with diarrhea in Italy, 2007-2009.
The surveillance network RotaNet-Italia was established in 2007 in order to investigate the diversity of co-circulating rotavirus strains in Italy, and to provide a baseline for future assessment of possible effects of vaccine implementation in selecting novel versus common rotavirus strains. A total of 2,645 rotavirus strains from pediatric patients with acute diarrhea were collected over three consecutive seasons from September 2006 through August 2009, and partially characterized by standardized multiplex RT-PCR. Most of strains (89.1%) belonged to genotypes G1–G4, and G9, associated with either P[8] or P[4], commonly found in humans worldwide. However, in at least 2.0% of cases, viruses…
Surveillance of Municipal drinking-water supply after a Norovirus outbreak in Italy
BACKGROUND Norovirus (NoV), in the family Caliciviridae, is the major causative agent of non-bacterial acute gastroenteritis, whose possible routes of transmission include drinking water. During March 2011 an outbreak of gastroenteritis was identified by the local public health service in S. Stefano di Quisquina, Sicily, Italy. Over two weeks, 156 cases were identified and NoV genotype GII.4 v2010 was detected in stool samples from eleven out of twelve patients. The finding of identical genomic sequences between patients suggested a common infection source and an epidemiological investigation indicated a possible correlation to municipal drinking water consumption. One of the wells supplyin…
Ricoveri per enterite da Rotavirus in Italia valutati mediante analisi delle schede di dimissione ospedaliera negli anni 2001-2003
Rotaviruses (RV) are the most common etiological agents in acute gastroenteritis (GE) in children in the first years of life. Data from the national scientific literature show that RV is responsible of 26% of all cases of hospitalisation for diarrea in children, resulting the most frequently identified agent. The Italian database of hospital discharge, freely available from the web site of the national Ministry of Health, was searched to investigate the epidemiology of RV gastroenteritis. The mean number of hospitalisation for RV enteritis in children in the first 4 years of live was 4.758 in the years 2001, 2002 and 2003, representing 84% of viral enteritis. RV was identified as agent in 1…