Rotavirus

Diarrheal disease is the second most common cause of death in children under 5 years of age worldwide. Diarrheal disease is also responsible for an estimated 1.5 million deaths/year, accounting for almost 20% of mortality within that age group [1–3]. There are more than 20 different bacterial,viral, and parasitic pathogens that cause diarrheal disease and the proportion and range of pathogens can vary depending on the country [4]. Rotavirus, calicivirus, enteropathogenic, and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli cause more than half of all diarrheal deaths in children under 5 years of age globally [5]. The Rotavirus genus within the Reoviridae family encompasses a large and diverse group of viruses capable of causing diarrheal disease in infants, children, adults, and the young of a wide variety of animal species [6]. Human group A rotavirus strains were identified in 1973 by Ruth Bishop and colleagues in Australia and rapidly gained recognition as the predominant cause of severe acute gastroenteritis in young children worldwide [7,8]. This chapter will outline the importance of group A rotavirus strains as human pathogens and provide a description of their classification, epidemiology,clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment, pathogenesis, immunity, transmission, genome,replication, diversity, and vaccines.