An Epidemiological Study of Rotavirus Diarrhoea in a Cohort of Nigerian Infants: II Incidence of Diarrhoea in the First Two Years of Life

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Abstract
Oyejide C O (Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University Collage Hospital, Ibadan, Nigerio) and Fagbami A H. An epidemiological study of Rotavirus diarrhoea in a cohort of Nigerian infants: II incidence of diarrhoea in the first two years of life. International Journal of Epidemiology 1988, 17: 908–912. In a community-based prospective study of diarrhoeal diseases carried out in Ibadan, 131 infants were selected at birth. The maximum possible length of follow-up ranged from 16 to 24 months. Weekly surveillance for diarrhoea was carried out at home by Primary Health Care workers. Each child was also required to attend a monthly clinic. Of the 131 babies, 95 (73%) completed at least one year of follow-up. All of these had at least one episode of diarrhoea within the first year of life. The incidence rate of diarrhoea in the first year of life was 3.2 cases/child/year. The mean duration of diarrhoea days in the first year of life was 16 per child per year (range 3–34 days). The peak incidence of diarrhoea and the greatest number of diarrhoea days were in the age interval 6–9 months. The mean duration of diarrhoea and five days per episode. Faecal samples for 280 diarrhoea episodes during the first year of life were examined for rotavirus using the ELISA technique: 22 (7.7%) were found to be positive. The mean duration of rotavirus diarrhoea episodes was eight days.