Prevalence and genetic diversity of rotavirus among children under 5 years of age in China: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

This meta-analysis was performed to assess the prevalence and circulating strains of rotavirus (RV) among Chinese children under 5 years of age after the implantation of the RV vaccine.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Studies published between 2019 and 2023, focused on RV-based diarrhea among children less than 5 years were systematically reviewed using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang and SinoMed Data. We synthesized their findings to examine prevalence and genetic diversity of RV after the RV vaccine implementation using a fixed-effects or random-effects model.

RESULTS

Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria for this meta-analysis. The overall prevalence of RV was found to be 19.00%. The highest infection rate was noted in children aged 12-23months (25.79%), followed by those aged 24-35 months (23.91%), and 6-11 months (22.08%). The serotype G9 emerged as the most predominant RV genotype, accounting for 85.48% of infections, followed by G2 (7.70%), G8 (5.74%), G1 (4.86%), and G3 (3.21%). The most common P type was P[8], representing 64.02% of RV cases. Among G-P combinations, G9P[8] was the most frequent, responsible for 78.46% of RV infections, succeeded by G8P[8] (31.22%) and G3P[8] (8.11%).

CONCLUSION

Despite the variation of serotypes observed in China, the G1, G2, G3, G8 and G9 serotypes accounted for most RV strains. The genetic diversity analysis highlights the dynamic nature of RV genotypes, necessitating ongoing surveillance to monitor changes in strain distribution and inform future vaccine strategies.