In order to find the behavior of the Astrovirus isolates from diarrheic samples taken from children under 5 in four different cities of Colombian, there were tested 1147 samples between 1996 and 2002. The diagnosis of HastV was done by EIA and there were found 2,8% of global prevalence. Fourteen of the positive samples were typed by RT PCR and sequencing the 384bp region of the ORF2 segment of the viral genome (which codes for the capsid protein). Neighbor joining was done in order to make the phylogenetic study. The conclusions of the study were that in Colombia, HastV has an endemic behavior and the Colombian strains, obtained from samples of geographically distant or the same places, show that there is no genetic variability among the same genotype and among strains with the same typed but collected out of this country.
keywords:
Diarrhea, Human Astrovirus (HastV), RTPCR, phylogenetic.