Fil: Bok, Karin. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Virología; Argentina.Fil: Castagnaro, N C. Instituto de Virología Luis C. Verna, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Diaz, N E. Departamento de Inmunoquímica, Centro de Ingeniería Genética y Biotecnología; Cuba.Fil: Borsa, Ana. Laboratorio de Virología, Hospital Infantil Sor María Ludovica, La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Nates, Silvia V. Instituto de Virología JM Vanella, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Espul, Carlos. Sección Sección Virología, Hospital Central de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Cuello, Héctor. Hospital Central. Sección Virología; Argentina.Fil: Fay O. Centro Tecnológico de Salud Pública, Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Brunet, B. Departamento de Medicina Interna, Hospital Infantil Víctor J. Vilela, Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Ues, O C. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Epidemiología; Argentina.Fil: Santoro, R. Departamento de Mecanismos Moleculares de Enfermedades, DMMD, Universidad de Zurich; Suiza.Fil: Grinstein, S. Laboratorio de Virología, Hospital de Niños, Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez, F. Instituto de Virología, CICVyA, INTA-Castelar, Buenos Aires, Argentina.Fil: Miceli, Isabel N. P. Dirección de Epidemiología, Ministerio de Salud, Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Gomez, Jorge A. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Virología; Argentina.Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhea in children and it has been estimated that in Argentina Rotavirus is responsible for 21,000 hospitalizations, 85,000 medical attentions and an annual medical cost of US$ 27 millions. Given that a Rotavirus vaccine is about to be approved, a laboratory network based surveillance system was organized. Herein, we present the results after one year of study. Severe diarrhea was responsible for 9% of pediatric hospitalizations and rotavirus was detected in 42.1% of the diarrhea cases. We estimated that Rotavirus causes 3.8% of pediatric hospitalizations. The number of diarrhea and Rotavirus diarrhea hospitalizations was greater during the first year of life (62% and 71.3%, respectively). The number of diarrhea hospitalizations during the December-May semester was significantly higher than the rest of the year. A Rotavirus diarrhea peak was detected between April and June. These results indicate that Rotavirus is the most important etiological agent of severe diarrhea in Argentine children and show the importance of performing Rotavirus diagnosis in every pediatric hospital. The additional costs will be compensated by many benefits such as better use of antibiotics, improved nosocomial spread control, better handling of hospital beds and of laboratory resources and of the hospitalized patient
