title: An outbreak of echovirus meningitis in children.
abstract: An outbreak of aseptic meningitis in children as evidenced by increase in the number of admissions in a tertiary care hospital is described. Clinical data and stool samples were collected from 25 hospitalized infants and young children. The stool samples were subjected to virological investigations. Fever and vomiting were the commonest symptoms. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed lymphocytic pleocytosis in majority of cases. Of the 25 stool samples, 14 showed an enterovirus specific cytopathogenic effect (CPE) in rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cell line. All the 14 samples were positive for enterovirus RNA by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Partial sequencing of the Virion protein 1 (VPI) region of the enterovirus genome carried out on the first 7 isolates revealed 5 isolates to be echovirus serotype 4 and one each to be echovirus serotypes 3 and 30. All children showed a rapid recovery and were discharged within 3 days of admission.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: Narayanan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sathish
authors.forename: Julius Xavier
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: R V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Shaji
authors.forename: Gopalan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sridharan
authors.forename: Vijayakumar S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Theophilus
authors.forename: Raj
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Antony
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cherian
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004457:Echovirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008587:Meningitis, Viral / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral