Rotaviruses and acute gastroenteritis of infants and children.

By means of electron microscopy and ultracentrifugation techniques rotavirus-like particles have been found in 84 of 269 specimens of faeces collected from infants and young children admitted to the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Camperdown, N.S.W. during the usual winter outbreak of infantile gastroenteritis. Morphologically intact viruses were also found in faecal specimens stored at -20 degrees C for up to nine years. Rotaviruses were found in specimens collected from five newborn infants with diarrhoea, and in a subsequent survey of the nursery when 23 neonates without diarrhoea were present, 12 (52 %) were found to be excreting virus. Morphologically similar viruses were found in six of 16 faecal specimens from newborn calves with gastroenteritis (scours), and an antigenic relationship between the rotaviruses of human and bovine origin has been demonstrated.