Rotavirus: Symptoms, How It Spreads, and Protecting Your Child

The main points

• Rotavirus commonly causes severe watery diarrhea and vomiting in infants and young children.
• Children can become dehydrated, need hospital care, and even die.
• Rotavirus vaccine is the best protection.

Symptoms

Symptoms usually start about 2 days after exposure, and vomiting and watery diarrhea can last 3 to 8 days. The most common are:

• severe watery diarrhea;
• vomiting;
• fever;
• stomach pain.

Some people also lose their appetite and become dehydrated — especially dangerous for infants and young children. Signs of dehydration:

• peeing less;
• dry mouth and throat;
• feeling dizzy when standing up;
• crying with few or no tears;
• unusual sleepiness or fussiness.

Who gets it

It's most common in infants and young children, but older children and adults — including people with weakened immune systems — can get sick too; adults usually have milder symptoms.

How it spreads

Rotavirus spreads easily in families, hospitals and child care centers, and children are most likely to get it in winter and spring (January through June). Infected people shed the virus in their stool, and others get infected by getting it in their mouths — from unwashed hands, contaminated objects or surfaces, or contaminated food.

People are most contagious while they have symptoms and during the first 3 days after recovering — and they can spread it before symptoms start.

Prevention

Vaccination is the best way to protect your child. Handwashing and cleanliness help but aren't enough to stop it. Children — even vaccinated ones — can get rotavirus more than once, because neither infection nor vaccination gives complete protection, but vaccinated children are less likely to get sick. More on rotavirus vaccination.

Treatment and dehydration

There's no specific medicine for rotavirus, though a provider may suggest medicine for the symptoms. Antibiotics won't help — they fight bacteria, not viruses.

• Drink plenty of liquids. Oral rehydration solutions, sold over the counter in U.S. food and drug stores, help most with mild dehydration.
• Severe dehydration may need hospital treatment with IV fluids. Call your doctor if you or someone you're caring for is severely dehydrated. Infants and young children, older adults and people with other illnesses are most at risk.

Sources

Based on "About Rotavirus," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Its stock photograph is not reproduced.