An epidemic of rotavirus diarrhoea in Jawhar Taluk, Thane district, Maharashtra, India, December 2000-January 2001.

An epidemic of diarrhoea in Jawhar, a tribal area of Thane district, Maharashtra, India was investigated. Within a period of approximately 2 months 490 cases of acute diarrhoea were reported among children under 5 years of age, with a case fatality rate of 0.40%. Twenty-seven out of 39 (69.23%) rectal swabs/faecal specimens obtained from hospitalized paediatric patients up to 2 years of age from Jawhar were positive by ELISA for rotavirus. Of these, seven were in the age group of < or = 6 months. Seven ELISA-positive faecal specimens were positive for serotype G3 by RT PCR. Out of 15 serum samples collected from these patients, 12 showed the presence of rotavirus-specific IgM. Rotavirus appears to be the aetiological agent of this widespread outbreak in Jawhar, Thane district, Maharashtra state, India.