Rotavirus Infection: A Systemic Illness?
A new study published in PLoS Medicine challenges the view that infection is confined to the upper small intestine in children with rotavirus diarrhoea. In the study, researchers found rotaviral antigens and RNA in blood samples from children with rotavirus diarrhoea. The authors conclude that the finding of infectious rotavirus in the blood suggests extra-intestinal involvement in rotavirus pathogenesis, though they concede that the impact of rotavirus viraemia on clinical manifestations of infection is unknown. One possibility – which needs further investigation – is that the extra-intestinal manifestations of rotavirus infection, such as respiratory symptoms and seizures, are in fact due to the infection being systemic rather than localised to the jejunal mucosa.
- Rotavirus antigenemia in children is associated with viremia. PLoS Med 2007 4: e121
- Rotavirus Infection: A Systemic Illness? PLoS Medicine 2007 4: e11
