Abstract:
Objective To examine infection characteristics and genetic evolution of adenovirus isolated in patients with diarrhea in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (Ningxia) for providing evidence to the prevention and control of human adenovirus infection.
Methods Totally 6 695 fecal specimens were collected from diarrheal outpatients at 10 diarrhea sentinel hospitals in 5 cities of Ningxia from 2015 through 2020. Adenovirus positive samples were screened out with real-time PCR. The gene of adenovirus hexon was amplified with PCR and sequenced for virus type identification and phylogenetic analysis.
Results Of all the specimens detected, 4.2% (278) were adenovirus positive and the positive rate was the highest (7.7%) for the specimens collected in 2017. There were significant differences in the adenovirus positive rate among the specimens collected in different seasons and isolated from the outpatients of various age groups. Gene sequences were obtained for the 80 adenovirus strains isolated from the 278 viral positive specimens. For the 80 viral strains, three genotypes were identified and the main type was F41, followed by type F40 and type C1.
Conclusion Adenovirus-induced diarrhea occured across a year among the people of various ages in Ningxia during 2015 – 2020 and the dominant adenovirus strain causing the diarrheal diseases was type F41.