Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is the utmost common diseases upsetting children <5 years old and leads to increased morbidity and mortality globally particularly in developing countries. It is projected that AGE causes more than 700,000 deaths yearly to those 2 years of age where virus agents with nearly >75% is the most important culprit of acute infectious diarrhea. Amongst the foremost causal viral diarrhea, the Rotavirus, Norovirus and then human Astrovirus, enteric Adenovirus, and Sapovirus have been the major viral agents of AE. Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) belong to family Adenoviridae, genus Mastadeno virus often producing a wide range of disease symptoms as the second or third agent of infantile diarrhea.

The enteric serotypes of HAdVs have been reported to be the cause of 2–31% in developing countries. Human Astroviruses (HAstVs), have been stated to be a primary cause of 2.3% - 8.9% in the developed country, while the usual occurrence worldwide is 11%. HAstV has been progressively recognised as an imperative agent of AE in children, mainly in children younger than 2 years of age and old. Sapoviruses (SaVs (belongs to the Caliciviridae family categorised into five genogroups (GI-GV).

As per the studies, SaVs were noticed in 2.7% to 15.4% of hospitalized children and from 3.7% to 19.2% of in outpatients with AR. Though the reported outbreak numbers are less for SaVs than for other viral diarrhea, SaVs in recent times, have been reported as and generally below the age of 5 years. In emerging countries, slight information has been reported to regulate the occurrence of HAdVs, SaVs, and HAstV.

The current data showed seasonal variations for occurrence of AE owing to Adenovirus, Astrovirus, and Sapovirus, but there was no statistical variance across various seasons for each enteric virus.

These results emphasize the significance of monitoring the epidemiology of HAstV, HAdV, and SaV as causal agents of viral diarrhea infections.

Source: Gastroenterol Hepatol Bed Bench. 2020 Winter; 13(Suppl1): S122–S127