An outbreak of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis due to adenovirus type 8 in a babies home

Between October and December, 1973, an outbreak of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis occurred in a babies home in Sapporo. 28 out of 58 infants and children suffered from the disease. Infection seemed to have been transmitted within a room by hands of nursing staff with spread into other rooms through the dispensary. Clinical manifestation in almost all of the patients was pseudomembraneous conjunctivitis without apparent corneal opacities. None of them showed systemic symptoms. Virus isolation was attempted from eye swabs of 4 patients between 5 and 8 days after onset of the disease, and adenovirus type 8 was isolated from all of the specimens. It was found that there was no case of subclinical infection by the serologic tests. Consecutive serologic studies revealed a good neutralizing antibody response to adenovirus type 8 in the patients tested.