Student Presentation on Rotavirus Essay -- Essays Papers

Student Presentation on Rotavirus Encounter Rotavirus is a wheel-shaped double stranded RNA virus. It is the most common cause of gastroenteritis in children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. It is believed that by the age of 4 most children in the United States have experience this infection and have developed immunity to severe disease caused by rotavirus. Individuals that are known to be at increased risk with complication of dehydration due to this viral disease include malnourished children as well as malnourished adults especially in the developing countries and the elderly that have a weakened immune system as they age. According to the Lancet, rotavirus is still believed to be the most recognized cause of diarrhea in children everywhere, however the infection is much more deadly in the developing world. "In the USA, for example, rotavirus infections are responsible for 50,000 admissions a year but only 20 deaths. In the developing world, on the other hand, rotavirus is responsible for 20% of deaths from diarrhe a in children. Worldwide it is estimated that virus kills about 500,000 children under the age of 5-years-old each year"(McCarthy 2003). As far as the U.S. is concerned, the rotavirus disease spread seems to have a seasonal distribution. (Seasonal Pattern). It has been accounted in many studiesthat rotavirus diarrhea shows a significant winter seasonality. This very unique wave of spread seems to move successively from west to east in the U.S., starting from Mexico and Southwestern states in the months of October and November and reaching the East coast in March and April. It has been suggested that weather conditions such as low temperature and humidity along with facilitated viral survival on fomi... ...d Health Policy)." The Lancet. 2003: 361; 582. Meissner, Cody. "Rotavirus and Other Viral Agents of Gastroenteritis." Mechanisms of Microbial Disease. 1999: 3; 345(9). "Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal: Rotavirus infections." Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2002: 87; 564(1). Internet "Rotavirus." Center of Disease Control and Prevention. 2003. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/rotavirus.htm "Rotavirus." Center of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Jan, 2003. http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap33.html "EMT of Rotavirus." Kisielius, Jonas Jose et al. ASM MicrobeLibrary. http://www.microbelibrary.org/FactSheet.asp?SubmissionID=590&LS "Image of Double Capsid." 1995. http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/mmi/stannard/rotaboth.gif "EMTs of Negatively Stained Rotavirus as Seen in a Stool Sample. http://www.wadsworth.org/databank/rotavirs.htm