What is rotavirus?
Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe gastroenteritis in children. Virtually all children will become infected with rotavirus by the age of five.
Severe rotavirus gastroenteritis can be potentially serious for young babies and has fast appearing symptoms of diarrhoea, fever and vomiting. The diarrhoea can last for five to eight days which, with the fever and vomiting, can result in babies becoming dehydrated and if serious it can require admission to hospital for immediate treatment.
How do you treat rotavirus gastroenteritis?
Rotavirus gastroenteritis is typically treated with oral rehydration therapy, and if severe it can require hospitalisation for rehydration either intra-nasally or intra-venously.
How do you prevent rotavirus?
Vaccination is widely recognised as the only control measure likely to have a significant impact on the incidence of severe rotavirus disease.
Thorough hand washing after contact with an infected child or adult, ideally with a waterless hand-cleansing agent, has been recommended (talk to your pharmacist).
However, even with high standards of sanitation and hygiene, rotavirus is highly contagious and cannot be easily controlled.
Who is most at risk?
By the age of five, almost all children from any sector of society will have had at least one episode of rotavirus gastroenteritis. Those most severely affected are typically children under two years of age.
Children in close communities such as paediatric wards and childcare centres are at increased risk of early infection. Rotavirus can also spread to family members of the infected child although symptomatic cases among adult family contacts are infrequent.
In Western Australia a study found that aboriginal infants were hospitalised for gastroenteritis eight times more frequently than non-indigenous infants.
The higher rate of hospitalisation is due to a greater and more severe disease burden in the Aboriginal population.
If it is so serious, why have we never heard of it?
People may not have heard of rotavirus as the virus was only discovered in 1973 and it is possible that rotavirus is still under-diagnosed in Australia.
Does anyone die from rotavirus?
Approximately half a million children each year die from rotavirus disease in developing countries.
In developed countries fatalities due to rotavirus are very rare.
How do you catch rotavirus?
Rotavirus is highly contagious with live virus passing from infected infants via their faeces to other infants and adults. The virus can also spread from an infant’s nappy to contaminate toys, nappy disposal containers and even food preparation counters and water. Even with high standards in sanitation and hygiene, infection with rotavirus cannot always be easily avoided.
Is it just a winter disease?
Rotavirus is a seasonal disease in countries like Australia, with peak incidence typically occurring over the winter period. The Northern Territory is the exception where outbreaks can occur in spring and even summer.
Are there different strains in different states?
The rotavirus serotype G1 is the most prevalent strain in Australia with the levels of G3, G9 and G2 varying from year to year. There is also substantial geographic variation in the prevalence of the rotavirus serotypes.
