Rotavirus as a cause of severe gastroenteritis in adults

Rotavirus was identified as the only etiological agent in 5% of adults (28 of 526) with diarrhea who were admitted to Bamrasnaradura Hospital in Nonthaburi, Thailand, during a 1-year period. Infection was determined by detection of rotavirus in diarrheal stools by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay accompanied by a greater than fourfold rise in serum complement fixation and radioimmunoassay antibody titers to rotavirus. Adults with clinical rotavirus infections were as severely ill as patients with most bacterial enteric infections; only patients with cholera passed more watery stools and were more dehydrated than those with rotavirus infections. Only 2 of the 28 adults with rotavirus infections had known recent contact with young children with diarrhea. Rotavirus infections in these adults occurred most frequently in the cooler, drier months in Thailand than during the rest of the year. In some settings, rotavirus should be considered in the differential diagnosis of severe diarrhea in adults as well as in young children.