[The geographical spread of enterovirus uveitis in the USSR]

Enteroviral uveitis is accompanied by intensive and long-term production of specific neutralizing antibodies. The antibody titer to the causative virus ECHO 19/K (Siberia, Krasnoyarsk, 1980-1981) was 1:1000-1:65,000 in 80% of children 5 to 6 1/2 years after the illness. In retrospective examinations of blood sera from children with the history of uveitis using a neutralization test with ophthalmotropic strains of ECHO 19 and ECHO 11 viruses, the ECHO-virus etiology of this disease was first established in 80 patients living in the European part of the country (Moscow, Leningrad, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Donetsk, etc) and in the Caucasus (Yerevan, Tbilisi, Baku). The epidemic process in uveitis is associated with the emergence and alternation of antigenic ECHO virus variants. Both in the Asian and European USSR the causative agent of uveitis in 1979-1983 was ECHO 19/K, in 1980-1987 ECHO 11/A, and in 1986-1989 ECHO 11/B virus. In 1979-1989, altogether over 800 cases of uveitis in children caused by ophthalmotropic variants of ECHO 19 and ECHO 11 viruses were detected in the Soviet Union.