18 May 2016

Diseases such as influenza and common colds strike most during winter. One other disease that hit hard during this period is Rotavirus.According to Dr Patson Mazonde, who is a medical practitioner, Rotavirus is one of the several viruses known to cause gastroenteritis or inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.

He described it as a member of the Reoviridae family, which is a self-limited infection and fluid stool losses may be dramatic, and death from dehydration is not uncommon, particularly in developing countries.He said Rotavirus affected mainly children less than five years especially those below one year, but adults could also be affected.However, due to their improved immunity, adults did not usually suffer a severe form of disease.

Rotavirus symptoms included fever, vomiting and watery diarrhoea. Although symptoms varied, children might experience fever, upset stomach and vomiting, along with frequent watery diarrhoea, sometimes multiple times a day.  Symptoms usually last three to nine days.

Dr Mazonde said treatment of acute Rotavirus infection was non-specific and involved management of symptoms and, most importantly, maintenance of hydration. “If untreated, children can die from the resulting severe dehydration. In most cases, no medication is required. Instead, attention should be directed to appropriate fluid intake and other conservative measures,” he said.

Dr Mazonde said hospital admission might be necessary where the infant is passing a lot of watery stools and oral rehydration fluids with salts and electrolytes were better than ordinary water. In addition, Dr Mazonde noted said it was advisable to maintain hydration through small and frequent feedings especially in vomiting infants.

He  explained that viral diarrhoea including that caused by Rotavirus is highly contagious. He said the faeces of an infected person could contain more than 10 trillion infectious particles per gram yet fewer than 100 of these were required to transmit infection to another person. ENDS