Rotavirus continues to be a major cause of diarrhoeal disease among children less than 5 years old. Among the five major rotavirus strains (G1P[8], G2P[4], G3P[8], G4P[8] and G9P[8]) causing severe disease in children, G1P[8] has been found to be the predominant strain [
2,
10]. Rotaviruses with the P[8] VP4 genotype are a major cause of acute infantile diarrhoea. Recent improvement in molecular characterisation has delineated the P[8] genotype into P[8]a and P[8]b subtypes. The P[8]a subtype is the previously known common P[8]genotype, whilst the P[8]b (OP354-like P[8]) subtype is rare and has been identified in only a few cases [
5]. In this study, we report for the first time rotaviruses with the P[8]b subtype as a cause of diarrhoeal disease in hospitalized Ghanaian children. The prototype P[8]b rotavirus (strain OP354) was reported in Malawi, Blantyre during a two year study of viral gastroenteritis in children (1997–1999) [
6] and subsequently detected mainly in Asian countries [
11‐
13]. The Ghanaian OP354-like P[8] strains were phylogenetically closely related to strains mostly from Africa and South Asia suggesting common origin. This finding supports the recently inferred evolutionary history of OP354-like P[8]b rotavirus strains globally [
7]. Compared with other VP4 P[8] lineages, strains bearing OP354-like P[8] genes emerged relatively recently, spreading from South and East Asia to Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and North America in less than 20 years. Considering that all the Ghanaian OP354-like P[8] strains were isolated in the same rotavirus season, it is unclear whether they are continually circulating or their detection resulted from a one-time seeding event. Continuous surveillance of rotavirus strains using updated PCR primer sets capable of detecting OP354-like P[8] strains should clarify this, and in the process, determine whether they will be an important genotype in the human rotavirus population. Though, Nguyen et al., [
11] speculated that P[8]b rotaviruses cause more severe disease than P[8]a subtypes, this study was unable to validate this position or otherwise. This was due to the disproportionately small number of P[8]b strains as well as insufficient clinical records. In the present study, 10.4 % (5/48) of previously non-typeable P[8] rotaviruses were successfully sequenced and characterized as the rare OP354-like P[8]b rotavirus strain. Both of the currently available rotavirus vaccines [Rotarix™ and RotaTeq™] include P[8]a VP4 gene but not P[8]b [
3,
14]. It has been reported that there is a relatively large genetic distance between OP354-like P[8] strains and the P[8]a strain contained in both vaccines which is translated into multiple differences in antigenic epitopes [
7]. Therefore, it remains unclear whether these vaccines will provide efficient protection against P[8]b rotavirus strains [
4,
15]. Full genome characterization of the Ghanaian P[8]b subtype is presently being conducted to elucidate their origin and evolutionary dynamics.