Human rotaviruses are the most important etiologic agents of acquired diarrhea in infants and young
children worldwide. Early diagnosis is essential for effective patient treatment. Three different
commercial diagnostic kits, latex agglutination (LA), test device and ELISA were evaluated for
rotavirus detection in diarrheic fecal samples of children with acute gastroenteritis. Two hundred thirty
six diarrheic fecal samples were collected from beginning of October 2011 to end of March 2012.
Specimens were analyzed for detection of Rotavirus, (108) samples were positive by Latex and ELISA
test, whereas (112) are positive by test device method. The sensitivity and specificity of LA were
(97.2%), (97.1%) respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity of stripe were (97.2%), (94.5%)
respectively. These results indicate that latex assay is sensitive and specific as the ELISA, and it could
be applied on a large scale for screening stool specimens in suspected rotavirus diarrhea. Whereas
test device has similar specificity and lower sensitivity in diagnosis of Rota virus However, the
indeterminate results must be confirmed by other methods, such as RT-PCR.