OBJECTIVE To monitor the common pathogens for viral diarrhea in children under 5 years old in Wuxi area, and to analyze their epidemiological characteristics and trends.

METHODS Diarrhea specimens were collected from inpatient and outpatient children with diarrhea in sentinel hospitals in Wuxi from 2018 to 2023. The norovirus, rotavirus, sapovirus, enteradenovirus and astrovirus were detected by Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the monitoring results were statistically analyzed.

RESULTS A total of 654 virus-positive cases were detected from 1898 diarrhea specimens with an overall detection rate of 34.46%. Among them, norovirus and rotavirus had the highest detection rates 12.54% and 11.70%, respectively. The detection rate of viruses was the highest in children aged 12 to < 24 months, reaching 59.03%. In inpatient children with diarrhea, rotavirus had the highest detection rate at 14.03%, while in outpatient children with diarrhea, norovirus had the highest detection rate at 11.93%. There was a significant difference in the detection rate of rotavirus between inpatient and outpatient children (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION Viral diarrheal diseases exhibit a notably high detection rate among children aged 12 to < 24 months in Wuxi, suggesting the need to further optimize prevention and control measures for this age group.