Asian Journal of Immunology

Aims: This study is aimed to determine the prevalence of Rotavirus among infants and young children that have gastroenteritis attending two Hospitals in Nasarawa State as a case study.

Study Design: A Hospital-based Cross-sectional Study was used in this study, and demographic data was obtained using questionnaire.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Biological Science, Bingham University Karu, Nasarawa State, between May 2019 and July 2019.

Methodology: 200 children of age 0-10 with gastroenteritis were included in the study. Stool samples were collected aseptically in a lick proof universal container and samples were screened for Rotavirus using faecal antigen Rotavirus EIA cassette kit according to the manufacture’s manual. The statistical analysis was done using the chi-square test (X²) to determine the relationship between prevalence of Rotavirus and possible risk factors at 95% confident interval.

Results: The prevalence rate of 8.5% was recorded. Children within the age group 0-3 had the highest frequency of 10.7% than other age groups. It was also observed that the infection was more predominant in males than in females, with an incidence of 8.5% and 8.4% respectively, although this was not statistically significant since P-value >0.05. Also children of parents with informal education had a higher frequency of 14.5% than children of parents with formal education (4.8%) and this was statistically significant with P-value <0.05 showing a relation with the prevalence of Rotavirus. The infection was observed to have a high prevalence of 12.3% in children that were still breastfeeding. Incidence of the infection in children that use toys was 11.3% with the P-value <0.05 and was statistically significant with the infection. A prevalence of 12.5% was recorded in children that use potty as against other toilet types. A frequency of 9.2% was observed in children that used antibiotics, although this was not statistically significant with P-value >0.05. Children that had not been vaccinated for the infection had the highest frequency of 8.9% with P-value >0.05.

Conclusion: The detection of Rotavirus in children stool samples within the selected study location is a wakeup call and a fact that gastroenteritis is not only caused by bacteria.