Role of breast feeding against infection with rotavirus among children with acute gastroenteritis
International Journal of Development Research
Role of breast feeding against infection with rotavirus among children with acute gastroenteritis
Received 16th August, 2018; Received in revised form 19th September, 2018; Accepted 20th October, 2018; Published online 30th November, 2018.
Copyright © 2018, Qasim Dawood Yasir Altameemi and Ansaf Abdulhussein Mahoor Chlaibawi. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
A prospective study was conducted over 2 years on 4600 children aged between 2 weeks to 5 years with acute gastroenteritis who were attending the pediatric clinics of Al-Zahraa and Al-Karama Teaching Hospitals in Kut - Iraq for the period between 1st of July 2016 to 30th of June 2018 to identify the role of breast feeding against infection with rotavirus in children with acute gastroenteritis. The aim of this study is to prove the effectiveness of breast feeding as a protective tool against infection with rotavirus among young children presented with acute gastroenteritis to offer informations for the health authorities to standardize a proper guidelines for prevention and control of this disease. Fecal specimens were collected properly and tested for the presence of human rotavirus antigen by Latex Agglutination (LA) test. The rotavirus antigen was detected in 55% of fecal specimens from children with acute gastroenteritis. Human rotavirus antigen was detected more in stool of infants between 6 – 24 months of age, more in low socio-economic group and rural patients; and lowest among breast-fed infants. There was no sex predilection to get the infection with the virus.
