rotavirus

Rotavirus is the major cause of paediatric severe diarrhoea worldwide. The virus is antigenically variable, with diversity arising from immune driven drift and reassortment of its segmented RNA genome during superinfections of human and animal strains. In Africa in particular the occurrence of unusual variant combinations of the immunodiminant G and P types is very high. Live attenuated vaccines, shown to be highly effective where they have been so far trialed, are increasingly being implemented within universal infant immunization schedules.