Epidemiology of Rotavirus and Its Association with Other Etiological Agents of Enteric Infections in the Mexican Child Population (0–5 Years)

TL;DR

This study examines the prevalence of rotavirus and other gut infections in Mexican children, finding high rates of infection and coinfections, emphasizing the need for better diagnostic tools.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the epidemiology and co-occurrence of rotavirus and other pathogens in Mexican children under five.

Findings

Rotavirus prevalence was 26.8% in 642 pediatric samples.

69.8% of samples showed coinfections with up to seven pathogens.

Hospitalization rates were higher in coinfections and for rotavirus.

Abstract

Gastrointestinal infections are a major cause of morbidity worldwide. Rotavirus (RVA) is the most frequent cause of severe diarrheal disease in children and is associated with high direct and indirect costs. Symptoms of RVA infection are nonspecific, so diagnostic confirmation requires laboratory testing, which is not routinely performed due to its high cost. For this reason, only a small proportion of hospitalizations are correctly classified. In this context, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of RVA and 19 other potential etiological agents in 642 samples from pediatric patients with gastrointestinal symptoms at the Social Security Mexican Institute (IMSS). The findings revealed a prevalence of RVA of 26.8%. When analyzing the 321 samples that were processed for the full panel, the positivity rate was 94.4% (for any of the etiological agents tested) and a high percentage of coinfections were detected (69.8%), including up to seven different etiological agents in the same child. The RVA was more frequent in children under 1 year of age, with higher circulation in winter and spring, while bacterial infections showed a seasonal trend in summer. The proportion of hospitalizations was higher in coinfections than in monoinfections, and RVA was the pathogen with the highest percentage of hospitalizations. The results emphasize the etiological complexity of gastrointestinal infections in the pediatric population, highlighting the importance of using multiplex diagnostic tests for appropriate clinical care and effective epidemiological control strategies.

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