Talk:WikiJournal of Medicine/Rotavirus

Plagiarism check
✅ WMF copyvio tool using TurnItIn. Short phrases such as "Nearly every child in the world is infected with rotavirus at least once..." were similarly used in external pages, but not regarded as plagiarism. T.Shafee(Evo&#65120;Evo)talk 09:10, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Comments from first peer reviewer
Following are comments emailed by a BSc in Biomedical Science. Mikael Häggström (discuss • contribs) 16:50, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

The reviewer has declared "No conflict of interests". Mikael Häggström (discuss • contribs) 16:04, 16 April 2017 (UTC)

Comments from second peer reviewer
Following are comments submitted by a virologist and epidemiologist (MD). T.Shafee(Evo&#65120;Evo)talk 06:22, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

Comments from third peer reviewer
Following are comments submitted by a paediatrician (MD). T.Shafee(Evo&#65120;Evo)talk 06:43, 30 August 2017 (UTC)

Comments from fourth peer reviewer
Following are comments submitted by a paediatric gastroenterologist (MD). T.Shafee(Evo&#65120;Evo)talk 06:43, 30 August 2017 (UTC)

{{review I would recommend considering re-ordering the sections if possible as it seemed awkward and repetitive in parts particularly to have history and epidemiology listed last. There are some areas particularly as the text relates to clinical and global health aspects that would benefit from input from a co-author who has a clinical and global experience. There needs to editing to make clear distinction between infection and disease as this is confused in parts but important to understand the concepts important in rotavirus infection, immunity and symptoms – which is the basis of vaccination.
 * version = https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:WikiJournal_of_Medicine/Rotavirus&oldid=1673780
 * date   = 2017-08-30
 * General Comments:

Specific recommendations: Abstract: “immunity develops with each infection….” Is probably correct, but here the distinction between infection and disease could be made. Symptomatic disease with re-exposure to rotavirus infection is less severe – adults are re-infected but tend not to develop disease although when immunity wanes in the elderly disease rates increase again, particularly in care settings.

Sentence “Although rotavirus was discovered..” is too long has too many concepts and should be divided into 2 parts.

The 3rd paragraph needs to be significantly revised. “Rotavirus is usually an easily managed disease..” is not correct and underscores the reason why so many children die worldwide, even occasionally in high income countries. An emphasis on the US is not ideal here when data is available for a broader global community. The sentence commencing “Public health..” needs to be re-worded as oral rehydration is for treatment of symptoms of dehydration due to rotavirus disease but not strictly for infected children.

Replication: This section and Figure 4 legend is difficult to follow and potentially provides too much detail. Abbreviations need to be introduced (ie dsRNA, siRNA or even RNA). There is nothing here regarding the role of histo-blood group antigens and rotavirus attachment to intestinal cells, the role of trypsin in virus replication and factors that might interfere with virus uptake and replication (ie enteropathy, microbiome etc)

Signs and symptoms: Infection in newborn children is NOT common. There needs to be re-wording for clarity as “most adults are not susceptible to rotavirus {?symptoms due to rotavirus infection)….”but asymptomatic infections in adults may maintain the transmission of infection in the community”. This referenced to a 2004 paper before introduction of rotavirus vaccination and the concepts of herd immunity have changed since then and need to be updated here.

Immune responses: The primary immune protection from rotavirus disease is through secretory IgA released from the gut mucosa. However this is not given appropriate reference here. Sentence “Specific antibodies of the classes …” is not clear. The role of maternal transplacental IgG in neonatal protection remains contentious and could be deleted here.

Diagnosis and detection: Although ELISA has been the traditional detection method many commercial labs now use PCR routinely due to lack of sensitivity and specific of commercial ELISA kits. The accurate identification of serotypes is not as straight forward as indicated here and sequencing may be required to identify strains that cross react – such as some G9s and equine-like G3. This section needs to be revised.

Treatment: The first sentence should be reduced to say that the treatment of rotavirus gastroenteritis is based on the correction of dehydration and any associated electrolyte abnormalities. It is important that the words used to describe the oral rehydration solution does not encourage non-medically trained people to use water with “small amounts of salt and sugar” – the use of home made oral rehydration solutions with inaccurate or inappropriate compositions has been associated with a number of deaths. The use of probiotics in the treatment of diarrhea remains contentious and not accepted by all. I would reword the last sentence to remove “well managed”

There is nothing here about the risk benefit of rotavirus vaccines. The ongoing concern about intussusception risk remains a barrier to introduction in some countries (particularly in Europe). More information could be provided about the vaccine – ie oral, volume, age administered, perhaps a map of current introductions. Also the difference in vaccine efficacy in high vs low income countries or some of the remaining challenges to rotavirus vaccine implementation.

Prevention: Reword second sentence. The data on reduction of deaths and hospitalisations with vaccination can be summarised for ease of reading (see ROTACouncil website). The last sentence needs to be re-worded or deleted as it is confusing, too encompassing and not strictly accurate.

Epidemiology: Delete sentences “ Boys are twice as likely as girls to be admitted hospital with rotavirus – this may be due to cultural differences and nothing to do with the disease. The season relationship of rotavirus disease only occurs in temperate regions and not in tropics. There is no specific value of the sentence on the unknown food contamination sentence. The issue of vaccination “helping” vaccine escape is not agreed by all (including CDC US).

Since this is a very virological focused review it may be of interest to high light the difference in serotypes across global regions. The WHO Global rotavirus surveillance network might also be interesting to mention. }}

Post-review editorial comments

 * Indeed, the author should edit or respond so to make reviewers more satisfied with the content. An option for this is to reduce the material about enteritis and vaccine, which are already linked to their main articles. Mikael Häggström (discuss • contribs) 15:38, 27 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you. We expect to have an editorial board decision on this article this week. A board member with expertise in the field agreed with the mention of admission rates of boys vs girls, so this is now reinserted . Mikael Häggström (discuss • contribs) 20:28, 6 November 2017 (UTC)