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The aim of the present study was to describe the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of acute viral gastroenteritis in hospitalised Italian children. A total of 215 stool specimens were collected from January to December 2003 from patients hospitalised in Palermo for acute diarrhoea. Samples were tested for group A rotavirus, astrovirus, adenovirus, norovirus, enteropathogenic bacteria, and parasites. Rotaviruses, mostly belonging to types G1-G4, were detected in 25.1% of samples, astrovirus in 7%, adenovirus in 6%, norovirus in 18.6%, and bacterial agents in 17.2%. No parasitic infections were diagnosed. Mixed infections represented 9.8% of all cases. The mean and median ages of children with rotavirus gastroenteritis were lower than those of children with other viruses (p = 0.029), with the highest median ages being found in astrovirus-infected patients. Vomiting and dehydration were more frequent among patients with viral infection (p < 0.01), and the severity score was significantly higher for children infected with astrovirus or group A rotavirus (p = 0.008). Rotavirus was the leading cause of prolonged hospitalisation (p = 0.005). In conclusion, viruses were confirmed in Italy as the most common cause of severe enteric illness in childhood, with rotavirus types G1-G4, which correspond to those included in the rotavirus vaccines being developed, playing the main role. Routine testing should be introduced for noroviruses, since they seem to represent an important cause of sporadic paediatric gastroenteritis.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) strains, obtained from immunocompetent and immunocompromised Italian hosts, were typed with glycoprotein B (gB) gene restriction analysis. A predominant circulation of HCMV strains with gB type 2 and 3 was detected in both the immunocompetent host with a primary HCMV infection and the immunocompromised host with or without HCMV disease. No association between gB types and subjects with different risks of developing HCMV disease was found. All four gB genotypes were capable of causing congenital infection in Italian babies, with gB type 1 accounting for 50% of the strains examined in symptomatic infants and a remarkable incidence of gB type 4 viruses.

108 rotavirus strains obtained from children with diarrhea hospitalized in Palermo, Italy, in the years 1990-1994, were examined by seminested PCR to study the relative frequency and distribution of the four most common alleles of the gene 4. Such strains were selected from 344 human rotavirus strains recovered in palermo during those years after characterization by electropherotyping, subgrouping and G serotyping. One hundred and seven of the 108 strains could be classified into P types, the P[8], G1 (38.3%) and the P[8], G4 (52.3%) types being predominant. The unique strain whose P genotype could not be identified showed an unusual combination of long migration electrophoretic pattern and subgroup I specificity.

Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of nucleic acid extracted from stool samples of diarrhoeic children revealed in 3 out of 690 (0.43 %) specimens two electrophoretic bands with a migration pattern characteristic of picobirnavirus ds-RNA. In none of the 92 control children were similar bands detected. No other potential enteric pathogens were found in the patients with picobirnavirus infection.