Nosocomial transmission of an avian-like rotavirus strain among children in Belém, Brazil.

Ministério da Saúde. Fundação Nacional de Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Belém, PA, Brasil.Ministério da Saúde. Fundação Nacional de Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Belém, PA, Brasil.Ministério da Saúde. Fundação Nacional de Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Belém, PA, Brasil.Ministério da Saúde. Fundação Nacional de Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Belém, PA, Brasil.An atypical group-A rotavirus strain, with an electrophoretype displaying 5 segments in the first dsRNA size class, was detected among 3 hospitalized children less than 2 years old. Detection occurred initially 24 h after admission in a non-diarrhoeic child hospitalized because of acute respiratory infection. The second detection involved a child who occupied a different room within the same ward and who developed nosocomial diarrhoea 48 h later. A third case, also of hospital-acquired diarrhoea, was recorded in a child who occupied a bed in the same room as the second case and developed gastroenteritis 24 h following the second case's detection. In addition to the unusual, avian-like genomic profile, the strain was classified as serotype 2, based on a human VP7-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The question of whether these events reflect either a genomic rearrangement of a human rotavirus strain or a possible interspecies transmission will be further investigated through hybridization assays