Clinical Profile and Serotyping of Rotavirus Diarrhoea in the Postvaccination Period: A Single-centre Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe, life threatening gastroenteritis in infants and young children. As rotavirus strains vary between geographic areas, region specific genotyping information is highly vital to study rotavirus epidemiology and to monitor strain variation after vaccine introduction. Aim: To estimate the prevalence of rotavirus diarrhoea and strains causing the infection among children younger than five years of age and to study the clinical profile of rotavirus diarrhoea to ascertain factors associated with rotavirus infection in them. Materials and Methods: This hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out on 150 children under five years with diarrhoea in the Department of Paediatrics, Government Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India from November 2017 to August 2018. The clinical severity was assessed by using Vesikari score. By using PremierTM Rotaclone ELISA Kit rotavirus antigen was detected. Positive samples were tested for RNA identification by Reverese Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). The IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 was used for statistical analysis. Results: The prevalence of rotavirus diarrhoea was 17.3% and positive samples belonged to G3 type. Prevalence of rotavirus diarrhoea among the vaccinated children was less when compared to unvaccinated children (p-value 0.034). Clinical severity score (Vesikari score) indicated that patients infected with rotavirus had severe disease as compared to rotavirus non infected patients (p-value 0.011). The duration of hospital stay was longer in rotavirus-positive children as compared to rotavirus-negative children (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: This study highlights the serotype specific prevalence of rotavirus diarrhoea in under five children. Rotavirus has been found to have more severe and prolonged illness among unimmunised under five children; thereby, reinforcing the need for routine rotavirus vaccination

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease in an infant

ABSTRACT Hand foot and mouth disease is a self limiting enteroviral lesion characterized by papulovesicular eruptions over hands and feet with circinate oral ulcers in the palate. The fever associated with the illness subsides in 48 hours and rash lasts for 7 to 10 days. Rarely they can also be associated with complications like encephalitis and myocarditis. We report a one year six month old infant with hand foot mouth disease which resolved without complications

Tuberculous otitis media and staphylococcus aureus coinfection in a five-year-old boy with miliary tuberculosis

A five-year-old boy with acute on chronic ear discharge and fever was diagnosed to have tubercular otitis media (TOM) with Staphylococcus aureus co-infection. His chest X-ray was suggestive of miliary tuberculosis. The clinical presentation of the child with a brief review of the literature pertaining to the case is being discussed in this report

Too short and too poor: A tale of two siblings

Two short siblings who were brought for evaluation of short stature are described with emphasis on availability of resources in the diagnosis and management of the cause of short stature in them

Extracellular Proteome Analysis Shows the Abundance of Histidine Kinase Sensor Protein, DNA Helicase, Putative Lipoprotein Containing Peptidase M75 Domain and Peptidase C39 Domain Protein in Leptospira interrogans Grown in EMJH Medium

Leptospirosis is a re-emerging form of zoonosis that is caused by the spirochete pathogen Leptospira. Extracellular proteins play critical roles in the pathogenicity and survival of this pathogen in the host and environment. Extraction and analysis of extracellular proteins is a difficult task due to the abundance of enrichments like serum and bovine serum albumin in the culture medium, as is distinguishing them from the cellular proteins that may reach the analyte during extraction. In this study, extracellular proteins were separated as secretory proteins from the culture supernatant and surface proteins were separated during the washing of the cell pellet. The proteins identified were sorted based on the proportion of the cellular fractions and the extracellular fractions. The results showed the identification of 56 extracellular proteins, out of which 19 were exclusively extracellular. For those proteins, the difference in quantity with respect to their presence within the cell was found to be up to 1770-fold. Further, bioinformatics analysis elucidated characteristics and functions of the identified proteins. Orthologs of extracellular proteins in various Leptospira species were found to be closely related among different pathogenic forms. In addition to the identification of extracellular proteins, this study put forward a method for the extraction and identification of extracellular proteins