Adenoviruses were found in 8.6% of 900 pediatric inpatients with diarrhea who were tested by electron microscopy of a fecal specimen and cell culture inoculation of a throat swab and an anal swab specimen. In 5.1% of these patients, including 13.5% of patients who were four through five months of age, adenovirus particles were visualized in the fecal specimen. Controlled study demonstrated that visualized adenoviruses, especially those that did not grow readily in conventional Hep-2 cell cultures, were significantly associated with diarrhea. About 80% of the visualized adenoviruses from patients with diarrhea or vomiting or both, including 94% of the viruses that grew in the 293 cell line but that did not grow readily in Hep-2 cultures, proved to be enteral adenoviruses--adenoviruses from either group F (type 40) or group G (type 41). Inpatients with gastroenteritis and confirmed enteral adenoviruses ranged in age from one through 16 months, with a median age of seven months. Enteral adenoviruses apparently are endemic in this locale, as one or more of these viruses have been found in every calendar month for nine successive years.

samples from 1,537 pediatric inpatients with gastroenteritis were tested for enteric viruses by electron microscopic and rotavirus enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques. Rotaviruses were detected in 34.5% of these patients, enteric adenoviruses were detected in 4.7%,-27-nm viruses were detected in 1.6%, and at least one of these agents was found in 40.1% of the study subjects. Three infections were by an apparently new agent which morphologically is a rotavirus, but which failed to react in the rotavirus enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. During the first 8 calendar years of study, rotaviruses were detected in 39.0% of 577 patients in the even-numbered years and 30.3% of 702 patients in the odd-numbered years. Adenoviruses were found in all calendar months. Rotaviruses were found in inpatients in November through July, whereas-27-nm viruses were found in October through June. The percentage of patients who had a demonstrated viral infection rose steadily from 7.4% in September to 72.0% in January and then steadily declined to 2.9% in August. Viral infection was especially common in study subjects who were 7 through 24 months of age; 61% of such children had one or more enteric viruses. Rotavirus-infected patients tended to be younger during the months of greatest rotavirus activity than at the beginning and end of the rotavirus season, presumably because of a greater exposure to virus at the height of the rotavirus outbreak. In recent years, previously unrecognized rotaviruses, adenoviruses, and miscellaneous, mostly small (-27-nm) viruses have been detected and associated with gastroenteritis (

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This study highlights the high incidences of both IPV and PMVCs typical of trauma in an SA setting. The demographics and injury patterns noted may be used to drive public health interventions to address this burden of trauma.