ASEPTIC-MENINGITIS IN INFANTS LESS-THAN-2 YEARS OF AGE - DIAGNOSIS AND ETIOLOGY

Standard virologic methods were used to characterize the relative cont ribution of each of the enterovirus classes to the etiology of aseptic meningitis during a prospective study of this disease among children <24 months old. Viruses were isolated in cell culture from 164 (60%) o f 274 cases identified over 5 years and in newborn mice from only 2 of 104 remaining cell culture-negative cases. Serologic tests identified the viral pathogen in 3 additional cases. The group B coxsackieviruse s and the echoviruses were implicated in 156 (92%) of the 169 laborato ry-diagnosed cases. Forty-eight percent of all diagnosed cases were du e to group B coxsackievirus serotypes 2, 4, and 5; 78% of all cases we re attributable to only 8 of the 67 known enterovirus serotypes. Polio viruses were the only viruses isolated from 7 children, including a ce rebrospinal fluid isolate from 1 child and a urine isolate from anothe r. Disease was attributable to the group A coxsackieviruses for only 3 cases.