Abstract

Background: Viruses are one of the major reasons of gastrointestinal disease worldwide, and commonly infect children less than five years of age in developing countries. Objectives: The current study aimed to determine the frequency of adenoviruses, rotaviruses and noroviruses among diarrhea samples collected from infants of Zabol, south-east of Iran. This study is the first investigation of adenoviruses, rotaviruses and noroviruses among diarrhea samples in Zabol. Patients and Methods: In this study, eighty-two diarrhea stool samples were collected from infants aged <1 to 12 months admitted to the hospital, internal laboratory and central laboratory of Zabol, Iran. All samples were subjected to the rapid immunochromatography assay. Results: The results showed that the frequency of rotaviruses, adenoviruses and noroviruses among infants with diarrhea were 70.20, 20.30 and 9.50, respectively. There were 50 subjects aged one to five months and 2 subjects aged nine to twelve months. The results of geographical distribution showed that the number of infants living in rural and urban areas with these viruses were 50 and 32, respectively. Rotaviruses were most common in rural and urban infants with 42 and 10 cases, respectively. Regarding the feeding patterns of infants with diarrhea, mixed feeding and breast feeding were found in 51 and 31 cases, respectively. Conclusions: In conclusion, the results of our study showed that the major viral pathogens that caused infantile diarrhea in Zabol city were rotaviruses followed by adenoviruses and noroviruses. The results of our study can useful for prosperous control of infantile diarrhea.