Haffejee I E, Moosa A, Windsor I
Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Natal, South Africa.
Ann Trop Paediatr. 1990 Mar;10(1):3-14. doi: 10.1080/02724936.1990.11747401.
In view of the high prevalence of rotavirus (RV) diarrhoea in Indian (Asian) infants in South Africa, a hospital-based study of 124 mothers and their neonates was carried out to establish the prevalence of maternal and neonatal circulating anti-RV antibodies, RV antibodies in breast-milk, and neonatal RV infections in this population. Thirty-four per cent of the mothers and 38% of the neonates had complement-fixing (CF) serum antibodies. There was a significant correlation between maternal and cord blood antibody levels (p less than 0.001; chi-square test). Fifteen per cent of hospital-born newborns showed asymptomatic RV excretion while still in hospital, mostly at 2-6 days of age, but some even earlier, with two shedding the virus before the age of 24 h. This excretion occurred in both seronegative and seropositive babies. The breast-milk of only 3.2% of the mothers was positive for CF-anti-RV antibodies, implying that either these were not present in the breast-milk or that the CF-test employed was not sufficiently sensitive for detecting these antibodies in milk specimens. Eighteen (18.2%) of 99 infants followed up showed evidence of RV infection 1-7 months after birth; none was symptomatic; 12 excreted RV in the stools while 6 others seroconverted. Asymptomatic reinfection was documented in 4 of 14 babies who had been infected initially as neonates.
