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).