Nosocomial infantile gastroenteritis associated with minirotavirus and calicivirus.

A prospective study was carried out to determine the epidemiology and etiology of acute gastroenteritis on the general infant ward of The Montreal Children's Hospital in the late fall of 1976. Diarrhea occurred in 41 of 165 infants (25%), with probable nosocomial acquisition in 26 patients. Two infants each had two episodes of diarrhea, and one had three. A putative pathogen was found in 31 of 45 case episodes (69%). Virus-like particles were present in 28 of 45 patients, and in 24 of 74 asymptomatic room contacts. Particles belonging to six morphologic classes were identified: adenovirus, rotavirus, minirotavirus, calicivirus, picorna-parvovirus, and coronavirus. More than one agent was identified in 12 infants with diarrhea and in five asymptomatic room contacts. No wardwide etiologic pattern was evident, but minirotavirus or calicivirus or both were associated with diarrhea in 20 patients, accompanied by vomiting in 15 of these infants. Moreover, spread of individual agents was almost entirely limited to minirotavirus and calicivirus, with diarrhea in six of ten, and four of seven, virus positive room contacts, respectively. These viruses were also identified in stools from 12 infants without diarrhea, seven of whom had repeated vomiting. Data support the etiologic role of minirotavirus and calicivirus in diarrhea or vomiting or both in hospitalized infants.