3.1 Detection of HAdV in acute gastroenteritis patients
Out of 1200 specimens tested for HAdV, 33 were eliminated from the study
because they had < 3 episodes of diarrhea per 24 hr. period (n
=7) or > 5 days of diarrhea (n =26). Out of these 33
specimens, two and nine were HAdV and RVA positive, respectively, and 21
had a severe or very severe disease outcome. Among the remaining 1167
faecal specimens, 61 (5.2%) showed the presence of HAdV and were
distributed among patients between 2 - 48 months (median-12.5 months) of
age, with 85.2% below 2 years of age (Table 1), and 31 were females. A
significantly lower proportion (1.2%) of HAdV positive cases were
observed in the 37–60 age group as compared to the age groups of 13–18
(7%, p = 0.0461) and 25–36 (8%, p = 0.0351) months (Table 1). A
similar comparison for RVA (n = 360) showed significantly higher percent
positivity in the 7–12 (39.1%) and 13–18 months (37%) age groups as
compared to other groups (p<0.05 for each). The mean age of
only HAdV (n = 54; 15.4 ± 9.3 months) and RVA (n = 353, 13.8 ± 9.0
months) positive patients, as well as patients with dual infections (n =
7, 12.0 ± 8.4 months) and patients negative for both viral agents (n =
753, 16.7 ± 13.5 months) was compared with each other. The mean age of
only RVA positive patients was significantly lower as compared to the
patients negative for both RVA and HAdV. No significant difference in
the mean age of HAdV and RVA positive patients was observed.
Sixty-one HAdV positive cases were distributed throughout the year, with
an overall detection rate of 6.5% (12/184) in the year 2013, 5.7%
(24/419) in 2014, 4.5% (15/349) in 2015 and 4.2% (10/215) in 2016.
Fecal specimens collected from Pune, Mumbai, Ahmadabad and Surat showed
5.5 (16/292), 4.3 (13/300), 5.7 (16/278), and 5.4 (16/297) percent HAdV
positives respectively.
The seasonal distribution of the HAdV positive AGE cases showed
occurrence of the virus throughout the year with higher percent positive
cases during March to August months (Table 2). RVA positive cases were
significantly high, (53.6%) in December – February and in September –
November (38.7%) months as compared to those of the March-May and June-
August months (p < 0.05 for each) (Table 2).