Epidemic viral enteritis in a long-stay children's ward

Two outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis occurred in 1974 in a long-stay children's ward. Electron microscopy demonstrated rotaviruses in faeces from the affected children in the first outbreak, and adenoviruses in faeces from affected children and a nurse in the second outbreak. The illness in both outbreaks was very mild; but the diarrhoea associated with rotavirus infection usually lasted 5-8 days (in one patient it lasted for 28 days) and sometimes started with vomiting; whereas the adenovirus-associated diarrhoea lasted only 2-4 days and was not associated with vomiting. Neither the rotaviruses nor the adenoviruses could be established in tissue-culture.