[Rotavirus etiology of hospital cases of acute gastroenteritis].

The etiology of enteric illnesses occurring during hospitalization in children admitted in January-May, 1985, for respiratory tract illnesses was studied by several methods including electron microscopy (EM), enzyme immunoassay (EIA), and PAG electrophoresis. Rotaviruses were detected in 22 (44.9%) t of 49 children with symptoms of intestinal infection, in February in 11 (84.6%) out of 13 patients. The analysis of virus genome RNA of 7 isolates positive in EM and EIA revealed in all the isolates an identical pattern of RNA segment distribution typical of "long" variants of group A rotaviruses. The appurtenance of the isolates to the same electrophoretic type together with epidemiological data allows the examined cases of rotavirus gastroenteritis to be considered as nosocomial ones. A sporadic case of gastroenteritis is described induced by a rotavirus antigenically different from Group A rotaviruses and having the electrophoretic type similar to that described for group C rotaviruses.