Rotavirus Department, National Institute of Virology, 20-A, Dr. Ambedkar road, Pune-411 001, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the XVIII National Conference of Indian Virological Society at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, December 11–13, 2008.
Human Astrovirus (HAstV) has been considered as one of the viral etiological agents associated with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in children and elderly. However, studies on molecular epidemiology of astrovirus infection in India are limited. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, age related distribution and seasonality of human astrovirus infection among acute gastroenteritis patients from western India. A three-year study (2004–2006) including 521 fecal specimens of sporadic infections of AGE from Pune, Maharashtra state, western India. Astrovirus detection and characterization were carried out by RT-PCR using ORF-1a region primers and sequence analysis. The prevalence of astrovirus infection was found to be 3.1%. Partial sequence analysis of ORF1a region showed 96.8–100% homology to Kolkata and 94.6–98.2% homology to Seoul strains respectively indicating presence of HAstV-8 type in 94% of the specimens. Remaining 6% specimens showed 86.8% homology with Oxford strain of HAstV-6 type. This study indicated a high prevalence of astrovirus infection in 0-12 months age group and higher activity in winter months. Overall the data indicate the predominance of HAstV-8 type in the region of study. This is the first report on astrovirus in acute gastroenteritis patients from western India.
