Background: Diarrhea is an important public health concern in developing countries such as Bangladesh. Diarrhea in children that persists for 14 days or more occurs in 7% of patients in Bangladesh and frequently results in death. Astrovirus has been demonstrated as a cause of acute and nosocomial diarrhea and can be excreted for prolonged periods, yet its importance as a cause of diarrhea among children in a developing country like Bangladesh has not been investigated.
Methods: We tested 629 stool specimens from patients with acute diarrhea, 153 from patients with persistent diarrhea, 175 specimens from 76 patients hospitalized for diarrhea who were sampled repeatedly to detect nosocomial infection and 428 from nonhospitalized healthy children (controls). All children enrolled in the study were <5 years of age. Astrovirus was detected by enzyme immunoassay and other enteropathogens were detected by standard techniques.
Results: The detection of astrovirus increased significantly with the duration of diarrhea. Astrovirus was found in 23 (15%) specimens from patients with persistent diarrhea, 26 (4%) patients with acute diarrhea, but only 8 (2%) healthy controls. This trend remained when we limited our analysis to infants <12 months of age and to episodes in which astrovirus was the sole pathogen. Among patients with nosocomial diarrhea, 16% of postadmission specimens were positive for astrovirus when the admission specimen was negative.
Conclusion: The observation that astrovirus is detected more frequently with diarrhea of increasing duration suggests the need for further studies to determine whether astrovirus plays a causative role in persistent diarrhea or is a secondary agent.