Changing Trends of Rotavirus and Enteric Adenovirus Infections in Children

This original article presents a study conducted to investigate the changes in the incidence and seasonal distribution of rotavirus (RV) and enteric adenovirus (eAV) infections in children diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was carried out in the pediatric emergency department of a tertiary university hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, analyzing data from patients aged 0 to 9 years between September 2017 and August 2022. The findings indicate a significant decrease in RV positivity during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period, while eAV positivity tended to increase. The study highlights that the strict non-pharmacological measures implemented during the pandemic contributed to the decline in RV infections, whereas the frequency of eAV infections showed a contrasting trend. The article concludes by discussing the long-term effects of the pandemic on these viral infections in children, noting that both viruses nearly disappeared in the early phase of the pandemic but returned to pre-pandemic levels in the late phase.