The prevalence of sapovirus in children and adults with acute gastroenteritis from tehran and alborz provinces

Mahtab Dehbozorgi,1,* Seyed reza mohebbi ,2 Seyed masoud hosseini,3 Mohammad namayan,4 Shabnam kazemian,5 Mohammad reza zali,6

1. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University
2. Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
3. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University
4. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University
5. Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
6. Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences

Abstract


Introduction

Sapovirus (sv) infection is a public health concern which plays an important role in the burden of diarrheal diseases, causing acute gastroenteritis in people of all ages in both outbreaks and sporadic cases worldwide. the molecular properties of sapoviruses are characterized as nonenveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded rna genome and belong to the caliciviridae family. the aim of this study was to determine the frequency of sapovirus infection among tehran and alborz provinces children and adults groups suffering from acute gastroenteritis symptoms.

Methods

A molecular epidemiological study of svs prevalence was performed in two provinces of iran (tehran and alborz) from november 2017 to june 2018. a total of 150 stool specimens were collected from hospitalized patients with acute gastroenteritis and stored at -70oc until use. viral rna was extracted and reverse transcription nested-pcr was employed to amplify and detect sv genome.

Results

The study population comprised of 83 males (55%) and 67 females (45%) with the age range from 1 month to 80 years. main clinical symptoms were diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, abdominal pain and headache. totally, 4 of 150 samples (2.6%) were positive for sapovirus infection. (2.4% vs 2.9% respectively, p value=0.605)

Conclusion

Although the frequency of sv infection among studied cases was low, it revealed the presence of this virus as pone of the causes of infectious diarrheal diseases. the findings indicate that sapovirus is one of the neglected etiologies of acute gastroenteritis among patients from tehran and alborz provinces especially in younger children. therefore setting up proper diagnostic tests and investigating the sapovirus infection is a necessity for controlling the sapovirus sporadic cases and outbreaks.

Keywords

Acute gastroenteritis, sapovirus, frequency, molecular detection