CISA – the Health Research Centre of Angola has published an article in the PLOS ONE international scientific journal on the genetic characteristics of the rotavirus in children aged under five suffering from severe gastroenteritis seeking treatment at the Bengo General Hospital in the period prior to the introduction of a vaccine by the Angolan Ministry of Health.

The study that the article resulted from, carried out in partnership with the Portuguese Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, determined a detection rate for rotavirus, the main cause of pediatric diarrhoea in children aged under five, stood at 25% among the cases analysed. The G1P[8] (47% of positive rotavirus samples) and G1P[6] (29%) stirpes, the most common in Angola, were identified for the first time in the Bengo region prior to the national introduction of the vaccine.