Sporadic and group incidence of acute viral gastroenteritis in Belarus: spectrum of the pathogens and etiology features

Abstract

The paper analyzes the results of virus detection in patients of different age at the time of sporadic and group morbidity of acute gastroenteritis (AGE). Enteric viruses were detected in the biological material of 1864 patients with sporadic cases of AGE in 2020‒2022 and in the biological material of 443 patients from 52 episodes of AGE group morbidity in 2009‒2021.Among enteric viruses found in 53.7 % of patients with sporadic AGE cases rotaviruses A were predominated (27.0 %), followed by genogroup 2 noroviruses (13.8  %), adenoviruses F (5.3  %), enteroviruses (2.5  %), genogroup 1 noroviruses (0.4 %). Mixed virus–virus infection was detected in 7.4 % of patients. In AGE group morbidity, genogroup 2 noroviruses were the main etiological agents ‒ they caused 63.5 % of episodes, whereas genogroup 1 noroviruses ‒ 11.5 %, rotaviruses A ‒ 5.8 %, enteroviruses and sapoviruses ‒ 3.9 % of each. Prevailing age group among people with the sporadic cases of AGE were children ≤5 years old, while the main part of the AGE group episodes was registered among children aged 6‒17 years and adults. Depending on the age of patients, the frequency of detection of various enteric viruses had significant differences: among children ≤5 years old with sporadic AGE, the main etiologic agents were rotaviruses A, whereas genogroup 2 noroviruses were detected 2.5 times less often (p <0.001), among children aged 6‒17 years and adults, rotaviruses and genogroup 2 noroviruses were detected with equal frequency. Adeno- and enteroviruses were found more often in children from 0 to 17 years old than in adults.The presented results indicate a significant contribution of enteric viruses to the incidence of AGE in our country. Moreover, this contribution is not limited by rotaviruses A only, but is largely formed by other enteric viruses, especially genogroup 2 noroviruses.