Epidemiology of Group A Rotavirus in children under five years of age with gastroenteritis in N’Djamena, Chad

Background: Group A Rotaviruses (RVA) is one of the most common causes of severe diarrhoea in infants and children under 5 years of age. Unlike other African countries where RVA surveillance is active, with routine circulating strains check, in Chad there is not currently RVA surveillance and vaccine introduced in the routine vaccination program. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors of RVA gastroenteritis in N'Djamena in view show the impact of RVA on the health of children under five years of age. Method: This study comprised two parts, (1) a cross-sectional study involving the detection of RVA VP6 protein by ELISA from stool samples collected in four hospitals in N'Djamena between August and November2019 from children aged five years and below, as well as a determination of risk factors through a questionnaire; and (2) a retrospective study consisting of analysing record of stool examinations to determine the frequency of diarrheic gastroenteritis among children aged five and below within the period from January 2016 to December 2018. Results: For the cross-sectional study, 141 samples were collected and analysed. The percentage of infected individuals was 12.76% (18/141) with males (61.11 %) being the more affected (sex ratio: 1.57). Children under 12 months were the most infected age group (44.44 %) and 44.4% are malnourished. The mean Vesikari score shows that 38.8% of children are at summer of severity and 41.1% have moderate condition. For the retrospective study, 2’592 cases of gastroenteritis hospitalization were analysed and 980 (37.8%) positive cases (all germs combined) of diarrhoea recorded from January 2016 to December 2018. The pic was obtained during the dry seasons, and the age group the most affected was 0 to 11 months with 57.3%. Conclusion: This study describes the evidence of RVA induced gastroenteritis among children below five years of age in N’Djamena, thus indicate a serious health burden. Malnourish and younger age children were found to be the most at risk of infection. Further studies are needed to determine the strains circulating for considering the introduction of RVA vaccine and establishing a routine surveillance of the disease in Chad.