Infantile gastroenteritis: a clinical study of reovirus-like agent infection.
In a clinical study of 32 infants with symptoms from infections with the human reovirus-like agent (R.I.A.) identified by electron microscopy (E.M.) of faecal extracts, a fairly consistent clinical pattern was found in 30 who had a gastroenteritis-like illness. The disease was usually mild, affecting mainly infants less than 2 years and males more commonly than females. The incubation period appeared to be 48-72 hours; and the onset was sudden, often with vomiting in the first 1-2 days of the illness. Loose yellow-green offensive stools without blood or mucus developed after a variable time, and there was often accompanying fever. Severe dehydration and electrolyte inbalance were uncommon; and with standard treatment the illness was uncomplicated, usually lasting 5-8 days. These features resemble those of previously reported winter epidemics of infantile non-bacterial gastroenteritis, and it is suggested that these epidemics were due to R.L.A. 2 infants in whom R.L.A. was identified in the stool did not have a gastroenteritis-like illness although both had protracted diarrhoea.
D000367:Age Factors; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D012087:Reoviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012088:Reoviridae Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D012744:Sex Ratio