An outbreak of gastroenteritis in young children caused by adenoviruses

During October and November, 1978, gastroenteritis developed in 17 of 24 young children aged between eight months and two years from an R.A.F. station in the U.K. The illness, in which diarrhoea was always the predominant symptom, had an incubation period of eight to ten days and lasted about a week. It seemed to be transmitted from child to child, and in all but one instance parents and older siblings remained well. Stool specimens from 14 of the affected children were examined bacteriologically and virologically, and a highly significant association was found between the presence of adenovirus particles in stools, identified by electron microscopy, and the acute stage of the illness. This evidence suggests that an adenovirus was the cause of this outbreak of gastroenteritis.