Acute infantile gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus in Japan

✍ Scribed by Tsuneo Morishima; Takayuki Ichikawa; Hideaki Yamaguchi; Mitsunobu Miyazu; Shoichi Nagayoshi; Takao Ozaki; Shin Isomura; Sakae Suzuki

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1978
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 583 KB
• Volume: 129
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-6997
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00441356

✦ Synopsis

We had an outbreak of acute infantile gastroenteritis accompanied by milky-white stool (called Hakuri in Japanese) during the winters of 1976 and 1977. Stool specimens collected from 72 cases of Hakuri were studied by negative-staining electron microscopy. Rotavirus was detected with a very high frequency (89%).

Rotavirus obtained from one of the patients was isolated and passaged in cultures of primary human embryonic kidney cells. Viral antigens could be detected in the cytoplasm of the cells by indirect immuno-fluorescence. The fluorescence-positive ceils increased in number with repeated passage.

Serum anti-viral activities in 11 patients were titrated by indirect immunofluorescence, using the cells infected with the passaged rotavirus. All I1 patients developed IgM responses in the convalescent phase. However, in 4 of the 11 patients, no IgG responses were detected even 2--3 weeks after the onset of illness. The reinfection which has occasionally be seen in our country may be related to these poor IgG responses.