Fact sheets
Gastroenteritis fact sheet (PDF 207KB)
Rotavirus fact sheet (is being developed and should be published shortly)
Public Health action
Notifiable disease data and reports
Additional sources of information
Exclusions
In general, people with symptoms of enteric infections should be excluded from work, school, activities involving groups of people (e.g. sports training, group camps) and other situations where disease transmission may occur, until they have been asymptomatic for 24 hours and have normal stools.
However, people who are at high risk of transmitting their infection or work in a high risk setting (i.e. workers in health care, residential care and child care, food handlers, young children in child care, and cases who are faecally incontinent, as shown in the table below) should be excluded until they are asymptomatic for 48 hours and have normal stools.
Enteric precautions for hospitalised and institutionalised patients.
Case definition
Confirmed case
Confirmed cases require laboratory definitive and clinical evidence.
Laboratory definitive evidence
1. Detection of rotavirus by nucleic acid testing (eg PCR)
OR
2. Detection of rotavirus antigen (eg latex agglutination or EIA)
Indications for laboratory testing for rotavirus
Laboratory testing for rotavirus is recommended for all patients with significant vomiting and/or diarrhoea (suspected to be infectious in origin) requiring substantial
oral, nasogastric or intravenous rehydration.
Clinical evidence
A gastrointestinal illness clinically compatible with rotavirus infection, characterised by vomiting and/or diarrhoea, with or without fever. The stools are usually watery and rarely contain blood. Rotavirus infection occurs principally in children, but may also occur in adults including the elderly, and particularly those with exposure to young children.
