Nosocomial acute gastroenteritis in a paediatric department, with special reference to rotavirus infections.

Nosocomial acute gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus as well as by non-rotavirus gastroenteritis was registered during a 12-month period in the paediatric department of a district hospital. The number of patients in the two groups amounted to 27% (rotavirus) and 7% (non-rotavirus) of the total number of patients hospitalised with the corresponding type of acute gastroenteritis. The seasonal and age distributions for the two types of nosocomial acute gastroenteritis followed the pattern of the respective types of hospitalised community-acquired acute gastroenteritis. Nosocomial non-rotavirus gastroenteritis was found to occur scattered with regard to time and locality within the department. The same applied to one half of the cases with nosocomial rotavirus gastroenteritis, whereas the other half occurred during an epidemic outbreak in the general infant/toddler ward. Vomiting and diarrhoea were less significant in nosocomial rotavirus gastroenteritis as compared with community-acquired rotavirus gastroenteritis. As to the other manifestations no difference was found between the two groups. Nosocomial rotavirus gastroenteritis prolonged the stay in hospital with on the average 3.8 days. Guidelines are suggested for isolation of patients with acute gastroenteritis in order to reduce particularly the frequency of nosocomial rotavirus infections.