Detection of antibody to group B adult diarrhea rotaviruses in humans

Group B rotaviruses have been responsible for annual epidemics of severe diarrhea affecting both adults and children in China. We developed a specific and sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent blocking assay to detect antibody to group B rotaviruses that will be useful to assess the role of group B rotavirus infections as a cause of human gastroenteritis. We tested 219 human sera and 18 immunoglobulin pools collected from eight countries for antibodies to both group A and group B rotaviruses. Overall, a low proportion (10 of 237 or 4.2%) of sera contained antibody to group B rotaviruses. Antibody to group B rotavirus was detected in only 1 of 155 serum samples from healthy or hospitalized individuals in the United States, including patients with the chronic inflammatory bowel diseases Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. No antibody was detected in 15 serum samples from Australia and from an outbreak of gastroenteritis on a cruise ship or in nine immunoglobulin pools from Japan and the United Kingdom. Antibody to group B rotaviruses was detected in 8 convalescent-(but not acute-)phase serum samples from Chinese patients with group B gastroenteritis, in five immunoglobulin pools from China, in 1 of 6 serum samples from Chinese students in the United States, and in 1 each of 10 serum samples from Kenya, 20 from Thailand, and 15 from Canada. In contrast, most of these samples (226 of 237 or 95.4%) had antibody to group A rotaviruses. These results indicate that human infection with group B rotavirus has not been widespread in areas outside China. Seroconversion observed between the acute-and convalescent-phase serum samples from China also suggests that infections with this virus are primary infections. Continued surveillance for this new group of rotaviruses should determine whether the many susceptible people become infected of whether other factors influence the severe pathogenicity of human infections with these viruses in China.