Relative prevalence of rotavirus diarrhoea in children attending outpatient departments of hospitals and general practitioners in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The study was done to know the relative prevalence of rotavirus diarrhoea in 329 children with diarrhoea aged less than 1 month to 6 years (32 were of unknown age) attending the outpatient departments (OPD) of public hospitals and 38 comparable patients treated by general practitioners (GP) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Forty-three age-matched patients without any diarrhoea or respiratory symptoms, 28 from the hospital OPDs and 15 from the GPs, served as controls. Rotavirus was detected in 52 of the 329 (15.8%) patients attending hospital OPDs, and in 11 of the 38 (28.9%) patients attending GPs. Rotavirus was detected in the faecal sample of only one child from each of the two control groups getting treatment in the two facilities respectively. The proportion of patients, who attended the GPs showing only rotavirus and no pathogenic bacteria in their stools, was significantly (Chi-square test at the level of 5%) higher than that in similar patients attending the hospital OPDs. Patients aged 7 to 12 months showed the highest frequency (34%) of rotavirus positive stools. Of the 63 rotavirus positive cases, 19 had mixed infections with commonly occurring bacterial pathogens of the intestines.