Environmental Aspects of Rotavirus Diarrhea Infections in Arid and Semi-Arid Zones: Benghazi City As Study Case

Hanan Mohamed Mohamed, Salem Elshatshat Elshatshat

Abstract


Rotavirus is a common worldwide infection in infants and children under five years old. Because of lack of enough information about rotavirus diarrhea in arid and semi-arid zones, the aim of this work was to increase the understanding of relationship between seasonality of rotavirus diarrhea and associations with environmental characteristics in such these regions. The coastal city of Libya (Benghazi) has been chosen for this work. This study carried out for seven months with different climatic conditions. 200 Stool samples from hospitalized infants and children under three years old were collected under aseptic conditions. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)method was used to detect the rotavirus infections in the samples. The results showed that 42% of the samples were infected with rotavirus. The study revealed that more than 70% of Rota infections were in male samples. Clearly, Breastfeeding helped to decrease infections in comparison to artificial lactation. Where they were 7.1% and 54.8%, respectively. The number of infections increased slightly by increasing rainfalls and temperature was limiting factor for rotavirus diarrhea in Benghazi city. The infections were highly seasonal; they peaked during the late winter and early spring and lowered in autumn. These findings are agreed with different results from temperate zones, while they differed with others from the tropics. 


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