Epidemiology of infectious acute diarrhoea in France and Europe

Acute infectious diarrhoea can be linked to various pathogens among which viruses are responsible for more than a half cases. Rotaviruses and caliciviruses are the most frequently encountered, in close to 60% of viral gastroenterititis. Rotaviruses account for more than 50% of severe diseases and caliciviruses, especially norovirus are reponsible for less severe sporadic gastroenteritis and water-or food-borne epidemics. Astroviruses and adenoviruses are minority, excepted for immunocompromised patients. Viral or Bacterial and viral coinfections are frequent (up to 15%). To date, the first rotavirus vaccine assays did not reveal any shift from a viral genus to another, such as calicivirus or adenovirus, according to the fact that epidermologic features of these viruses are quite different. Progress in viral diagnosis and genotyping enabled to analyse viral diversity and to follow viral recombination events, and emergence of new variants that could propagate among various countries. This dynamic evolution that concerns not only Europe but also developing countries should be carefully surveyed at the era of rotavirus vaccination. (c) 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tons droits reserves.