Electrophoretic study of the genome of human rotavirus in rural Indian community.

A rural cohort of 507 children, less than 3 yr of age was kept under weekly surveillance for 12 months, for morbidity due to diarrhoea. Stool specimens for rotavirus detection were obtained in 346 of the 360 diarrheal episodes occurring in 354 children and in 211 children without diarrhoeal symptoms. Rotavirus was detected by an ELISA test in 4 per cent of children with diarrhoea and 6.6 per cent of control subjects. Viral genome RNA was extracted by phenol chloroform method from all the positive samples and analysed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by silver staining. All the strains isolated, exhibited the same electropherotype with a 'long' RNA migration pattern. This result contrasts with the genomic variability amongst rotavirus strains usually observed in different settings.