Etiology of viral gastroenteritis and their diagnosis with recent advanced molecular techniques

Abstract

Acute Gastroenteritis (AGE) in under 5 years’ children is mainly caused by enteric viruses and the Rotavirus is most common pathogen causing viral diarrhea with the emergence of Norovirus followed by administration of Rotavirus vaccine. The causative agents of AGE have conventionally been identified with their biological markers as specific antigens and by targeting their specific genes. With recent advances in the Next Generation Sequencing, techniques like Metagenomics can play important role to discover such pathogenic enteric viruses. This overview the causes of AGE and describe a large number of recently available multi-parameter commercial test which will help in the prediction of prognosis, and virulence for the active infections and support the accurate and rapid clinical diagnosis of AGE and improve the patient condition and reduce both morbidity and mortality associated with infections, especially in children under 5 yr. of age worldwide.