8 ± 14.4 months). Among the rotavirus infected children, 58.5% were in the age group of 7–12 months, while 14.5% belonged to ≤6 months. Analysis of the clinical severity scores indicated very severe, severe,

moderate and mild disease in 2.8%, 56.5%, 38.7% and 2.3% of the patients suffering for rotavirus gastroenteritis. As against this, 5%, 47%, 38.3% and 7.7% of the patients tested negative for rotavirus experienced very severe, severe, moderate check details and mild disease, respectively. In general, children with rotavirus diarrhea had significantly less mild and more severe disease than those with rotavirus-negative diarrhea (P < 0.05). Rotavirus infected children had more episodes of vomiting than did uninfected children (P < 0.05). The multiplex PCR conducted for genotyping of rotavirus strains showed amplification of VP7 and VP4 genes in 197 (81.7%) and 190 (78.8%) strains respectively and identified genotypes of both genes in 178 (73.8%) strains (Table 2). 32 (13.2%) strains remained untypeable for both genes. We detected infections with mixed rotavirus strains in 18 (10.1%) of the 178 specimens. Among the strains typed for both VP7 and VP4 genes, G1P[8] strains attained the highest score (31.4%). This was followed by G2P[4] (20.2%); G9P[8] (11.8%); G9P[4]

(10.1%); G12P[6] (6.1%); G12P[8] (3.3%); G2P[8] (2.8%); G2P[6] (2.2%); G3P[8] (0.5%); G4P[4] (0.5%) and G1P[4] (0.5%) rotavirus strains. G1P[8] strains continued to remain prevalent in all the years of study except selleck the year 2009 in

which G9P[8] strains (15.2%) were predominant. G9P[8] strains remained second highest in the year 2010 and Histamine H2 receptor declined markedly in circulation in 2011–2012. We found higher circulation of G9P[4] strains, an unusual combination of G and P types in 2010–2012 as compared to 2009. Mixed infections were highest (27.1%) in the year 2009 and declined drastically in the following years (Table 3). Two rotavirus vaccines, Rotarix™ and RotaTeq® have been licensed in ∼90 to 100 countries to use against rotavirus diarrhea. Both vaccines are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) in childhood immunization programs conducted globally [9]. Studies report difference in the efficacies of these vaccines against severe rotavirus diarrhea in high and middle income (85–98%) and low income (39–72%) countries [10]. In countries like India, where the vaccine efficacy data is yet to be acquired, monitoring of rotavirus disease and strains is essential to assess the impact of rotavirus vaccines and circulating rotavirus strains on each other. The data obtained in this direction in the present study reaffirm earlier reports (2005–2009) of the characteristics of rotavirus infections, large rotavirus disease burden and strain diversity among children in Pune, western India [3] and [4]. Our data showed that rotavirus positivity continued to remain significant in each year of the study period (2009–2012) and concurred with recent study reports from India [11].