1. Introduction
Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality
and is still a significant public health problem for infants and young
children worldwide. Human Adenoviruses (HAdVs) are members of the genusMastadenovirus in the family Adenoviridae and are known to
cause a wide spectrum of acute and chronic diseases, including
gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, hepatitis, myocarditis, and pneumonia.
HAdV is a linear, double-stranded DNA virus with a genome size of 26–45
kb and classified into 7 subgroups (A to G) and more than 100 genotypes
[https://talk.ictvonline.org/taxonomy/].
HAdVs of subgroup F consisting of serotypes HAdVF-40 and HAdVF-41, also
known as enteric adenoviruses, are the most common cause of
gastroenteritis in children and adults (Akihara et al., 2005; Shimizu et
al., 2007; Lee et al., 2012). The association of other subgroups of HAdV
with gastrointestinal tract infections has also been reported over the
period (Hierholzer 1992; Li et al., 2005; Banyai et al.,2009; Knipe et
al., 2013; Afrad et al., 2018). In the present study, on the background
of scanty data on HAdVs circulating in India, clinical, epidemiological,
and virological investigations were conducted on AGE patients
hospitalized in four cities of India between 2013 and 2016.