Diarrhea and rotavirus infection associated with differing regimens for postnatal care of newborn babies

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Abstract
Surveillance of 2041 babies born during 4 winter months in 1 obstetric hospital in Melbourne, Australia, showed that 215 developed acute diarrhea during the first 2 wk of life. Babies requiring special care from birth had a high incidence of sporadic diarrhea (36%). The incidence of diarrhea among healthy full-term babies was low if they were rooming-in with their mothers (2-3%) but high if they were housed in communal nurseries (29%). The most important factor influencing incidence of diarrhea was proximity to other newborn babies and frequency of handling by unrelated adults. Breast feeding did not always protect babies from diarrhea. Excretion of rotaviruses was temporally related to diarrhea in 61-76% of healthy full-term babies and in 44% of babies requiring special care. Other enteric pathogens, including enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, were occasionally isolated. Calculation of the ratios of symptomatic to asymptomatic infection suggests that babies requiring special care are much more likely to develop symptomatic illness after rotavirus infection than are healthy full-term babies.