Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 7, 2008



Rotavirus is a genus of double-stranded RNA virus in the family Reoviridae. It is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children. By the age of five, nearly every child in the world has been infected with rotavirus at least once. However, with each infection, immunity develops and subsequent infections are less severe. There are seven species of this virus, referred to as A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Rotavirus A, the most common, causes more than 90% of infections in humans. Rotavirus is transmitted by the faecal–oral route. It infects cells that line the small intestine and produces an enterotoxin, which induces gastroenteritis, leading to severe diarrhoea and sometimes death through dehydration. Although rotavirus was discovered in 1973 and accounts for up to 50% of hospitalisations for severe diarrhoea in infants and children, its importance is still not widely known within the public health community, particularly in developing countries. Public health campaigns to combat rotavirus focus on providing oral rehydration therapy for infected children and vaccination to prevent the disease. In addition to its impact on human health, rotavirus also infects animals, and is a pathogen of livestock. (more...)

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