Detection of group A rotavirus by reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction in feces from children with acute gastroenteritis.

RT-PCR was employed to detect rotavirus infection in 450 fecal samples from children with acute diarrhoea. It was compared with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) for rotavirus detection. A total of 67 samples were found positive by at least one of the three techniques. Of these 67 samples, 51 were positive by all three methods, 6 were positive by ELISA and RT-PCR but negative by PAGE, 3 were positive by PAGE and RT-PCR and negative by ELISA, 3 and 4 samples were exclusively positive by RT-PCR and ELISA respectively. These results indicate that RT-PCR is a sensitive and specific assay for detection of group A rotaviruses in stool samples from cases of acute diarrhoea.