OBJECTIVETo investigate the epidemic of diarrhea caused by rotavirus infection among children treated at the Beijing Friendship Hospital in a period of 2 years.

METHODSStool samples were collected from 972 diarrheic children from January 2010 to January 2012. The antigen of rotavirus was detected by the gold imunochromatography assay (GICA).

RESULTAmong the samples studied, 370 out of 972 cases (38.1%) were positive for rotavirus antigen. The ratio of infected boys and girls was 2.14:1. Most infected children (91.4%) were under the age of two. The viral infection takes place all year round but breaks out mainly within a cold season that lasts from October through March, with a peak in November and December. Even in the spring and summer, however, its prevalence rates were quite significant among the children with diarrhea, ranging from 11.1% to 41.7%.

CONCLUSIONIn Beijing area, rotavirus is the major etiologic cause of diarrhea in children, especially in those under the age of 2. The peak prevalence occurs at any given time during the late fall and early spring seasons. It is necessary, therefore, to strengthen the surveillance of rotavirus infection in the spring and summer seasons in order not only to predict and prevent a potential outbreak in the end of the year, but also collect and provide more dynamic data for the further epidemiologic research of rotavirus diarrhea in the children.