RESEARCH ARTICLE


Gastroenteroviruses Infection in Taiwan



Tsong-Ming Lu1, 2, Hsiu-Ting Tsai3, Yu-Wen Cheng4, Lengsu William Chin1, 5, Chi-Chiang Yang*, 6
1 Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China
2 Department of Neurology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China
3 School of Nursing, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China
4 Department of Internal Medicine, Lee General Hospital, Miaoli, Taiwan, Republic of China
5 Emergency Department, Da Chien General Hospital, Miaoli, Taiwan, Republic of China
6 School of Medical Laboratory and Biotechnology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2009
Volume: 3
First Page: 37
Last Page: 43
Publisher Id: TOIDJ-3-37
DOI: 10.2174/1874279300903010037

Article History:

Received Date: 23/01/2009
Revision Received Date: 11/02/2009
Acceptance Date: 13/02/2009
Electronic publication date: 18/3/2009
Collection year: 2009

© 2009 Lu et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the School of Medical Laboratory and Biotechnology, Chung Shan Medical University, 110, Section 1, Chien-Kuo North Road, Taichung, Taiwan 402, Republic of China. Tel: 886-4- 24730022; Ext: 11716; Fax: 886-4-23767469; E-mail: cyang@csmu.edu.tw


Abstract

Acute infectious gastroenteritis causes high morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. The most important cause of gastroenteritis is virus infection. Diarrhea is the dominant symptom of viral gastroenteritis. It subsequently induces dehydration and malnutrition, which contribute to high morbidity and mortality in children. In Taiwan, rotavirus is the major cause (30.4-48%) of infectious gastroenteritis, followed by adenovirus (9.1-19.8%), norovirus (8.2-25%), enterovirus (< 5.2 %), astrovirus (2.7-2.9%) and other viruses (including sapovirus)(< 1 %). Untreated gastroenteritis is the major cause of infantile mortality, which leads to human tragedy and economic burden. In Taiwan, the cost of admission or hospitalization associated with gastroenterovirus infection is about more than 40% of the monthly salary of an unskilled or service worker. Understanding the epidemiology of gastroenterovirus and its induced host immune response could benefit the development for prevention and therapeutic management of gastroenterovirus. This review summarizes the epidemiological information and current knowledge of gastroenteroviruses that cause gastroenteritis in Taiwan.

Keywords: Gastroenterovirus, Gastroenteritis, Taiwan.