Evaluation of a Rotavirus Outbreak in a Tertiary Care Children?s Hospital Burn Unit

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to examine the rotavirus outbreak that occurred in the burn unit at our hospital, the precautions to be tak-en in the outbreak, and our experiences.Material and Methods: Infection control measures carried out for pa-tients who were found to be positive for rotavirus antigen in the stool at least 48 hours after hospitalization in the burn unit during the outbreak were retrospectively reviewed from the records of the infection control committee.Results: Nosocomial rotavirus infection was detected in seven of the 15 patients in the burn unit between March 2 and March 24, 2021, and a total of eight patients were followed up due to contact. Median age was 14 months (minimum eight months, maximum 53 months). Rotavirus infection was detected on the 5th, 22nd, 6th, 3rd, 4th, 4th and 6th days of hos-pitalization, respectively. The compliance of the healthcare workers in the unit with contact precautions, especially hand hygiene, and asep-sis-antisepsis rules was evaluated with daily infection control committee visits. No symptoms developed in eight patients who were followed up due to contact. The outbreak ended in 22 days.Conclusion:The fact that the infected patients were mostly hospitalized in different rooms at the beginning suggests that fomites, inanimate surfaces, or caregivers may have contributed to the contamination. For this reason, in addition to isolation of the patients, proper cleaning of in-animate surfaces at certain intervals, full compliance of healthcare work-ers with hand hygiene rules, and strict supervision of the measures taken play a key role in ending the outbreak as soon as possible.