Comments on “Detection and identification of enteroviruses circulating in children with acute gastroenteritis in Pará State, Northern Brazil (2010–2011)”

Investigation of human enterovirus (EV) in diarrheic fecal specimens is valuable to address EV diversity circulating worldwide. However, the detection of EV strains exclusively in fecal specimens must be interpreted cautiously. EV are well known causative agents associated with a spectrum of human diseases, but not acute gastroenteritis. EV isolation in stool samples could not necessarily be associated with diarrheic symptoms, as most EV infections appear to be asymptomatic, and healthy children could excrete EV in their stool. The diagnostic of EV is only confirmed when the neutralization test presents a significant increase in antibody titers (three times or more) in the paired serum samples (acute-phase and convalescent-phase) against the same EV serotype isolated in feces. In addition, patients suffering from acute gastroenteritis, even during an EV investigation, must be screened in parallel for gastroenteric viruses (i.e. norovirus and rotavirus) in order to clarify if the symptoms could be linked to other viral agent detected in their fecal samples. Surveillance of EV diversity among distinct patient groups, including diarrheic individuals, must be taken into consideration and can considerably increase the power of non-polio EV surveillance system in Brazil. More well-designed studies are necessary to further elucidate the role of EV in acute gastroenteritis.