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Rotavirus is the main cause of acute gastroenteritis in infants and young children worldwide. Almost 600,000 patients die of rotavirus each year. The virus has a triple layered-structure, containing 11 segments of double-stranded RNA. Among them, the outer capsid proteins, G genotype (VP7) and P genotype (VP4), are key antigens used to distinguish the strains. In general, rotavirus is transmitted by fecal-oral routes, especially through contaminated hands, surfaces, and objects. Clinical symptoms of rotavirus infection are nausea, vomiting, watery diarrhea, dehydration, and low-grade fever. Several methods are used to detect rotavirus, such as ELISA (enzyme immunoassay), electron microscopy, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in stool samples. Two known licensed vaccines, RotaTeq and Rotarix, are currently used to prevent rotavirus infection. However, genotypes of rotavirus tend to have different patterns depending on the country, region, and age. For this reason, it is required to constantly monitor rotavirus genotypes for the evaluation of vaccine effects and development of prevention strategies.
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