An epidemic of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis in the city of Sao Paulo.

This is a clinical and laboratory report on 98 patients with acute viral conjunctivitis who were referred to the Eye Clinic of the Escola Paulista de Medicina of Sao Paulo, Brazil, from February 1983 to February 1984. It was planned with the objective of confirming the importance of adenovirus and enterovirus 70 as etiological agents of viral conjunctivitis. The occurrence of an outbreak of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis during the summer of 1984 permitted a better study of enterovirus 70. In addition, we could demonstrate that sporadic cases, from March to July 1983, were caused by the same virus. This fact confirmed the idea that the spread of the disease was not related to the recent arrival of the virus in the community, but to weather conditions of heat and high humidity.