Rotavirus
Rotavirus is a disease of the digestive tract caused by any one of three strains of rotavirus. Infection from Rotavirus causes acute gastroenteritis (vomiting and diarrhea). Humans of all ages are susceptible to rotavirus infection. Children 6 months to 2 years of age, premature infants, the elderly, and the immunocompromised are particularly prone to more severe symptoms.
The disease is the most common cause of severe diarrhea in children worldwide occurring in about 120 million people every year and it is responsible for the death of about 600,000 children per year in developing countries.
In the United States, the death rate from rotavirus infections is much lower because of successful hospital treatment of the often severe vomiting and diarrhea. However, every year in the United States rotavirus is estimated to be responsible for up to 70,000 hospitalizations, approximately 250,000 emergency room visits among children younger than 5 years of age and 60 deaths.
Rotavirus infection is also known by other names such as "infantile diarrhea," "winter diarrhea," "stomach flu," "acute nonbacterial infectious gastroenteritis," and "acute viral gastroenteritis." Almost every child has been infected with rotavirus by age 5.