Detection by immune electron microscopy of 27-nm viral particles associated with community-acquired diarrhea in children
Article Abstract:
Approximately half of all episodes of diarrhea are caused by an infectious agent. Rotavirus (so-called because of the wheel shape) infections are the most common cause of diarrhea in children living in the US. Other viral agents such as small round viruses (SRV; e.g. the Norwalk or Norwalk-like viruses) are also known to cause diarrhea in children. In most cases, antibodies, which are produced by the body in an effort to fight off infection by the small round virus, are present by the age of ten. The proportion of children with diarrhea caused by small round viruses of an unknown origin was determined in 188 children under two years of age. Stool samples were checked for bacteria, protozoa, enteric adenoviruses and rotaviruses. An identifiable pathogen was detected in 75 patients (40 percent) and 21 patients (20 percent) without diarrhea. A random sample taken from patients without an identifiable pathogen (72 patients with diarrhea and 53 control patients without diarrhea) was evaluated further by electron microscopy, which can create a two-dimensional image magnified 100,000 times or more. Small viral particles (not enteroviruses) were found in nine children with diarrhea (12.5 percent) and one child without diarrhea (1.8 percent). In the nine patients with noncurable small round viruses, four out of six blood samples demonstrated a significant immune response. In most cases, the diarrhea was self-limiting and lasted from one to three days. It is concluded that small round viruses can cause measurable episodes of diarrhea in children under the age of two. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journal of Infectious Diseases
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0022-1899
Year: 1990
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Congenital syphilis in Maryland, 1989-1991: the effect of changing the case definition and opportunities for prevention
Article Abstract:
Revised diagnostic criteria for congenital syphilis published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may increase the number of infants identified with the disease. Researchers in Maryland did a retrospective study of infants diagnosed with congenital syphilis in the 1980s and early 1990s. The revised CDC definition caused the number of congenital syphilis cases to increase by 473% over the number diagnosed using older criteria. Of the mothers whose infants were diagnosed with congenital syphilis under the revised definition, 45% received no prenatal care, and another 17% did not have prenatal care in the first 30 weeks of pregnancy. Caregivers did not always take advantage of testing and treatment of women at risk. Early and comprehensive prenatal care may prevent congenital syphilis.
Publication Name: Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0148-5717
Year: 1995
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Nonimmune hydrops fetalis associated with genetic abnormalities. Spontaneous resolution of fetal cystic hygroma and hydrops in Turner syndrome
- Abstracts: Detection of occult nodal metastases in patients with colorectal carcinoma. Mitomycin C adjuvant chemotherapy after Wertheim's hysterectomy for stage 1B cervical cancer
- Abstracts: Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2a associated with cutaneous lichen amyloidosis. Pancreatic carcinoma as a cause of unexplained pancreatitis: report of ten cases
- Abstracts: A multistate outbreak of Norwalk virus gastroenteritis associated with consumption of commercial ice. Investigation of an outbreak of adult diarrhea rotavirus in China
- Abstracts: Vibrio gastroenteritis in Louisiana: a prospective study among attendees of a scientific congress in New Orleans