Rotavirus outbreak among adults in a university hospital in Germany.

BACKGROUND

Rotaviruses are the main cause of acute viral gastroenteritis in children under five years of age. Adults seem to be less frequently affected by rotaviruses most likely due to partial immunity resulting from prior infections.

OBJECTIVES

To describe a hospital-associated outbreak of rotavirus infections among adults.

STUDY DESIGN

Routine diagnostics and contact screening of symptomatic patients hospitalized at the university hospital of Freiburg. For rotavirus-positive patients, we performed rotavirus genotyping of all rotavirus RT-PCR positive samples and phylogenetic analysis.

RESULTS

Between December 2016 and April 2017 routine diagnostics showed an unexpectedly high number of rotavirus infections among adults with the exception of one pediatric case. In total, 32 temporal-associated cases were identified. Among these, two asymptomatic cases were detected. Genotyping showed that all isolates belonged to rotavirus G2P[4]. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed an outbreak. Infection prevention and control successfully contained further spread.

CONCLUSIONS

Infections with rotavirus are rare among adults but may spread between patients making timely recognition of rotavirus infections important for infection control. Rapid phylogenetic analysis is crucial for proactive infection control.