All issues > Volume 29(4); 1986

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1986;29(4):394-400. Published online April 30, 1986.

Study on HRV Gastroenteritis and Nosocomial Infection.

W P Chung¹, T W Paik¹, C M Kang¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Keimyung University, School of Medicine, Taegu、Korea

Abstract

The study was carried out on 227 diarrhea patients to determine the etiology and epidemiology and on 18 patients who developed diarrhea 72 hours following admission to determine the nosocomial acquisition of HRV. The HRV antigen was determined by ELISA. The HRV antigen study was also done on 21 pediatric house staffs and nurses who were taking care of these patients and on 21 patients who had no diarrhea during hospitalization as a control group. All patients included in this study were admitted to the pediatric department of Dong San medical center in fall (September through December) 1984. The results were as follows: 1) HRV antigen was detected in 129 patients(56.8%) among 227 diarrhea group and in 14 patients (77.8%) among 18 cases of nosocomial acquisition. The antigen positive rate was higher in the patients on whom the ELISA was done in early stage of the disease. 2) Out of 21 doctors & nurses (23.8%) and 5 cases (23.8%) among 21 controls had HRV antigen on the same period. 3) Out of 129 patients who had HRV antigen, 78 patients (60.5%) were between 6〜 12 months of age and 14 antigen positive patients who developed diarrhea 72 hours following admission were under 24 months of age. 4) 118 antigen positive diarrhea patients (91.5%) & 12 antigen positive nosocomial infection patients (85.7%) were seen in October & November during a large community out break of the illness. 5) There was no significant difference in mean frequency or mean length of diarrhea between diarrhea and nosocomial infection group. 6) Besides diarrhea, the cardinal symptoms in order of frequency were vomiting(84.5%) dehydration(77.5%), fever (42.6%) and cough (41.8%) in diarrheal patients and in nosocomial infection, the incidence of dehydration (14.7%) and the fever (21.4%) were significantly lowcompared to those of the diarrhea patients. 7) By the fact that 23.8% of hospital personnel on a pediatric ward had HRV antigen during the community epidemic of the diarrheal disease, authers can conclude they could function as carriers of HRV infection.

Keywords :Human Rotavirus; Gastroenteritis; Nosocomial Infection.