Characteristics of group A rotavirus in the outpatient diarrhea cases in Beijing Friendship Hospital from 2015 to 2017

Objective To understand the epidemic characteristics of group A rotavirus diarrhea in pediatric outpatients in Beijing. Methods Data of children with diarrhea and their stool specimens were collected from Beijing Friendship Hospital from May 2015 to May 2017; group A rotavirus detection kit (colloidal gold) was used for screening of group A rotavirus positive specimens. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to analyze the genotype distribution. Results Of the 1813 cases of children with diarrhea, 319 were positive for rotavirus A, accounting for 17.6%; Positive rate of 1-2 years old children was the highest (27.2%). Six months to 12 months age group and 2 ~-3 years of age group had the highest detection rate (17.5% and 16.7%, respectively). Minimum age of positive detection was 12 days, the highest age of positive detection was 12 years. In February, group A rotavirus had the highest positive proportion, 24.5%, and the lowest was seen in June, 1.2%. The most common genotype of Group A rotavirus was G9 P [8] (55.5%), G1P [8] (22.6%) and G3P [8] (9.7%). Conclusions Rotavirus is the common pathogens of diarrhea in children under the age of five years in Beijing, the main epidemic strains were of G9P [8] genotype, rotavirus diarrhea has obvious time-specific characteristics. Key words: Rotavirus; Diarrhea; Genotyping