Huq M I, Rahman A S, Al-Sadiq A, Al-Shahri A, Alim A R
Diarrhoea Control Centre, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Ann Trop Paediatr. 1987 Sep;7(3):173-6. doi: 10.1080/02724936.1987.11748501.
A major cause of morbidity and mortality among children in developing countries is acute diarrhoea and rotavirus, a reovirus-like agent, is found to be a leading causative agent. We report here the incidence of rotavirus infection among infants and young children with gastro-enteritis treated at the Children's Hospital in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One hundred and fifty children, aged between 1 and 60 months, suffering from diarrhoeal illness, were selected as the study cohort; another 150 hospitalized children of the same age group, but not suffering from diarrhoea, served as controls. Sixty-two per cent of the study children complained of watery diarrhoea and 39% of vomiting; all had mild to moderate dehydration. Seventy-two per cent had fever and 30% associated respiratory illness. Worst affected were those 7-12 months old, among whom rotavirus was detected by ELISA techniques in 39.6%, compared with 7.5% of the control children of comparable age group. We could not detect any rotavirus from control children aged over 36 months, whereas approximately 15% of the study children in this age group yielded rotavirus from the stool. The second most common pathogen isolated was Shigella ssp. It was isolated from 18.7% of children under study as against 3% of the controls.
发展中国家儿童发病和死亡的一个主要原因是急性腹泻，而轮状病毒这种呼肠孤病毒样病原体被发现是主要致病因子。我们在此报告沙特阿拉伯王国达曼市儿童医院收治的患肠胃炎的婴幼儿中轮状病毒感染的发生率。150名年龄在1至60个月之间患有腹泻病的儿童被选为研究队列；另外150名同年龄组住院但未患腹泻的儿童作为对照。研究儿童中有62%主诉水样腹泻，39%主诉呕吐；所有人都有轻至中度脱水。72%有发热，30%伴有呼吸道疾病。受影响最严重的是7至12个月大的儿童，通过酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）技术在这些儿童中检测到轮状病毒的比例为39.6%，而同龄对照组儿童的这一比例为7.5%。我们在36个月以上的对照儿童中未检测到任何轮状病毒，而在这个年龄组的研究儿童中约15%的粪便中检出轮状病毒。分离出的第二常见病原体是志贺菌属。在研究儿童中有18.7%分离出该病原体，而对照组中这一比例为3%。
