Rotavirus molecular epidemiology in hospitalized patients, Northern Italy, 2015-2018

About 15,000 hospitalizations due to group A Rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVA) are recorded each year in Italy. In the present study, we report the seasonal distribution and molecular characterization of RVA in pediatric and adult hospitalized patients in the period September 2015-April 2018 in Pavia province, Lombardy Region. During the study period, stool samples of 1450 patients with acute gastroenteritis were analyzed and 122 were RVA positive, the majority belonging to pediatric patients (94.0%) while only a minority of patients (6.0%) were adults. G3P[8], G1P[8], G9P[8] and G2P[4] were the most detected RVA strains, with a prevalence of 82.4%. However, a variety of RVA strains circulated in Northern Italy in hospitalized patients over a period of three years, emphasizing distinct patterns of distribution in different age groups and between years.