Rotavirus infection among hospitalized children under five years of age with acute watery diarrhea in Sri Lanka.

Background: Rotavirus is the leading cause of acute watery diarrhoea among children and is vaccine preventable. The aim of this hospital-based sentinel surveillance was to study the prevalence, demographic and clinical characteristics of rotavirus infections and to describe rotavirus genotype distribution patterns among children under five years of age hospitalized for acute watery diarrhea during the period of 2009-2016.

Methods: Prospective, sentinel hospital-based surveillance was conducted in Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) from 2009 to 2016.