Provides you with all the things you have to know about rotavirus.

Rotavirus is a communicable disease that can be spread around easily. It is caused by the pathogen. Diarrhea and gastroenteritis is a common cause of rotavirus for children. It is mainly found between children 6 months and 2 years. Children with the infection of rotavirus can have them lose their body fluids and even worst, they can face death.

Rotavirus was discovered at the year 1973 by Dr. Ruth Bishop in Australia. Soon rotavirus was named from its appearance, because 'rota' means wheel in Latin. Mostly infants and children get infected by this virus so people sometimes call it infantile diarrhea or winter diarrhea.

The symptoms of rotavirus include a low-grade fever, stomach cramps, and watery vomits. Dehydration can be found on young children infected. Signs of it could be dry lips, tongue, and skin together with sunken eye. The symptoms usually occurs 1-3days after infected and it last normal 4-6 days.

Transmission electron micrograph of multiple rotav...

Rotavirus

Rotavirus-Infected Cell

The first symptom that shows will be vomiting and diarrhea will begin the following day. An infected child can be able to spread the disease around for about 10 days

Rotavirus is spread through sharing of item or food after and infected person. The symptoms occur 4-48 hours after eating the food containing the virus. It can also be spread through the nose or throat. In this way, to prevent yourself from getting infected, you must wash your hand after contact with any items and waste product should be cleaned up properly.

There is no specific treatment for rotavirus. If the person infected is suffering from dehydration, he/she should be rehydrated to replace the fluids lost. Antibodies and drugs used to cure diarrhea should NOT be used at anytime. As for breastfed infants, they will have lesser chance of being infected because breast milk contains antibodies.