Persistent enteral infections with adenovirus types 1 and 2 in infants: no evidence of reinfection.

Isolates of adenovirus types 1 and 2, obtained from 11 infants with prolonged faecal excretion (up to 515 days), were compared by DNA restriction analysis with seven standard endonucleases which recognize hexanucleotides and two additional endonucleases which recognize tetranucleotides. In all instances identical genome types were identified in isolates obtained early and late after infection. Our interpretation of these data is that a chronic persistent infection occurred in these children, and not a reinfection with the same serotype.