Cytotoxic enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to B T Thom.
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Faecal specimens were collected at weekly intervals over the winter months from 141 new-born infants without diarrhoea. Contrary to the findings in other studies, no viruses were detected by electron micriscopy or culture in any of these specimens. Over the same period faecal specimens were collected from 84 infants up to four years of age admitted to hospital. Rotaviruses or adenoviruses were found in 48% of infants with gastroenteritis. Enteroviruses and other small round virus-like particles were found in infants both with and without gastroenteritis. No viruses or pathogenic bacteria could be found in 34% of specimens from infants with gastroenteritis.
In an outbreak of winter vomiting disease affecting both pupils and staff in a primary school, virus-like particles were found in 7 out of 8 faecal specimens examined by electron microscopy. The particles measured 26 nm in diameter and had a buoyant density of 1-38--1-40 g/cm3 in caesium chloride. They could not be cultured in tissue-culture or organ-culture. In immune electron microscopy tests the particles appeared to differ antigenically from the Norwalk and Hawaii agents. Two out of three patients examined more than one month after their illness were still excreting the particles.