Overview of rotavirus infections in Korea

Rotavirus is the most common cause of acute watery diarrhea in young Korean children. Rotavirus vaccine will soon be available, and information is urg ently required about the serotype distribution of recent epidemics and clin ical characteristics of rotavirus infection in Korean children before the i mplementation of a vaccination program against rotavirus. We reviewed publi shed studies of the past 20 years, carried out on Korean children with rota virus gastroenteritis. Rotavirus was estimated to be responsible for 46% of 4668 hospitalized Korean children with acute gastroenteritis. Rotavirus ga stroenteritis was most prevalent among children aged 6-24 months, which acc ounted for 84% of all cases. Asymptomatic rotavirus infection was common. R otavirus was one of the most commonly identified enteric pathogens in nosoc omial diarrhea. Vomiting, respiratory symptoms and fever were prominent sym ptoms in rotavirus gastroenteritis. Transient elevation of liver enzymes, p ulmonic infiltration and rarely afebrile convulsion were also observed. The epidemic peak, which occurred in November of the last 15 years, has been m oving toward late winter and early spring in recent years. No apparent caus e has been found to explain this alteration of peak seasonality. All seroty ping studies in Korea for the past 10 years until 1997 revealed that G1 was most prevalent (45-81%). Interestingly, the predominant G serotype of the recent outbreaks in 1998 and 1999 was not G1 but G4. Approximately 95% of r otavirus isolates in recent outbreaks belonged to serotype G1, 2, 3 or 4.