AN OCCURRENCE OF DIARRHEAL CASES ASSOCIATED WITH GROUP-C ROTAVIRUS INADULTS

Six of the 23 college students who joined a group trip in February of 1991 developed acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis with severe diarrhea . The causal agent was identified as group C rotaviruses by electron m icroscopy (EM), immune-EM (IEM) and the molecular examinations includi ng polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and polymerase chain reac tion (PCR) on virus particles detected in the extract of watery fecal specimens of the patients. The patients positive for virus isolation s howed significant increase in IEM antibody to the isolated virus in th eir paired sera. These findings suggest that the group C rotavirus is an important etiological agent of diarrhea and may also cause serious food-borne diarrheal disease in adults.