Rotavirus

Rotavirus, is the leading cause of diarrhoeal disease mortality among children under five, resulting in 450,000 to 700,000 deaths each year, and another 2 million hospitalisations, mostly in the developing world. By the age of five, nearly every child in the world has been infected with rotavirus at least once. It is transmitted by the faecal-oral route, via contact with contaminated hands, surfaces and objects. It is very stable in the environment and resistant to most household/clinical biocides.
The faeces of an infected person can contain more than 10 trillion infectious particles per gram and only 10–100 of these are required to transmit infection to another person. With no antiviral treatment available, management of the child must focus on prevention of dehydration.
Inhibition of Rotavirus replication can be monitored by measuring cell viability by the MTT assay using mammalian cell culture.


If you are interested in Retroscreen's antiviral assays for this virus please click here to contact us.


References:
Velázquez FR, Matson DO, Calva JJ, Guerrero L, Morrow AL, Carter-Campbell S, Glass RI, Estes MK, Pickering LK, Ruiz-Palacios GM (1996). "Rotavirus infections in infants as protection against subsequent infections". N. Engl. J. Med. 335 (14): 1022–8.

Butz AM, Fosarelli P, Dick J, Cusack T, Yolken R (1993). "Prevalence of rotavirus on high-risk fomites in day-care facilities". Pediatrics 92 (2): 202–5.

Graham DY, Dufour GR, Estes MK (1987). "Minimal infective dose of rotavirus". Arch. Virol. 92 (3–4): 261–71.

O Nakagomi, NA Cunliffe (2007). “Rotavirus vaccines: entering a new stage of deployment”. Curr Opin Infect Dis. 20 (5): 501-7.