Abstract

Twenty-four infants under 6 months infected with echovirus 19 are described, They were the youngest of the many children admitted to hospitals in Newcastle and Gateshead during an epidemic in the north-east of England in 1974. Generally, the younger the child the more severe the illness, which affected the upper respiratory tract, the gut, the skin, and the meninges, and sometimes caused as state of collapse resembling septicaemic shock. Polymorphonuclear pleocystosis of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sometimes suggested bacterial meningitis, so that antibiotics were given in 38% of cases. The virus was recovered with a high success rate from nasopharyngeal secretions, CSF, and stool.