title: Nearly constant shedding of diverse enteric viruses by two healthy infants.
abstract: Stool samples from two healthy infant siblings collected at about weekly intervals during their first year of life were analyzed by PCR for 15 different enteric viral genera. Adenovirus, Aichi virus, Anellovirus, Astrovirus, Bocavirus, Enterovirus, Parechovirus, Picobirnavirus, and Rotavirus were detected. Not detected were Coronavirus, Cardiovirus, Cosavirus, Salivirus, Sapovirus, and Norovirus. Long-term virus shedding, lasting from one to 12 months, was observed for adenoviruses, anelloviruses, bocaviruses, enteroviruses, parechoviruses, and picobirnaviruses. Repeated administration of oral poliovirus vaccine resulted in progressively shorter periods of poliovirus detection. Four nonpolio enterovirus genotypes were also detected. An average of 1.8 distinct human viruses were found per time point. Ninety-two percent (66/72) of the fecal samples tested contained one to five different human viruses. Two British siblings in the mid-1980s showed nearly constant fecal viral shedding. Our results demonstrate that frequent enteric infections with diverse viruses occur during early childhood in the absence of severe clinical symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Beatrix
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kapusinszky
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Minor
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Delwart
mesh_terms: D058345:Asymptomatic Infections; D002353:Carrier State / Q000821:virology*; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D017201:Virus Shedding; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification*