Background: Gastro-enteritis is associated with significant mortality in low- and middle-income countries, and rotavirus and norovirus are the principal viral agents implicated.
Aims: To investigate the molecular epidemiology and burden of disease associated with rotavirus and norovirus in children attending a health centre in Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in children attending a health centre in Awassa, southern Ethiopia. Children with diarrhoea (cases) and without diarrhoea (controls) were recruited over a 6-month period from December 2008 to May 2009. Rotavirus was detected by ELISA and genotyped by RT-PCR, and norovirus was amplified by RT-PCR with genotyping by sequence analysis of RT-PCR products.
Results: Rotavirus was detected in 44/200 (22%) cases and in none of the controls, with genotypes G3P[6] (48%), G1P[8] (27%) and G2P[4] (7%) being the strains most commonly identified. Norovirus was detected in 16 (8%) of 200 cases and in 4 (7%) of 57 controls. Norovirus GII.3 was the strain most commonly detected (40%: 8/20) and ten other genotypes were also detected.
Conclusion: Rotavirus is a common cause of severe gastro-enteritis in children in Ethiopia; however, norovirus occurred with a similar frequency in cases and controls. A globally uncommon strain type, G3P[6], predominated within the rotavirus strains detected.