VIROLOGY - AN OUTBREAK OF EPIDEMIC KERATOCONJUNCTIVITIS CAUSED BY ADENOVIRUS TYPE-37

An outbreak of acute keratoconjunctivitis in an ophthalmology departme nt affected 15 patients and seven members of staff and necessitated te mporary closure of the unit. Adenovirus (Ad) was isolated from eye swa bs taken during the outbreak, but typing of the isolates by virus neut ralisation assay proved unsatisfactory, wrongly assigning the isolate to serotype 10. A robust and rapid method for preparing microgram amou nts of Ad DNA from infected cells was devised and used as the basis of a non-radioactive method for routine genotyping of adenovirus clinica l isolates. All isolates associated with the outbreak, and one from a patient presenting at a nearby hospital during the outbreak, were foun d to have restriction endonuclease digestion patterns characteristic o f Ad 37.