[Significance of adenovirus infections in infancy and early childhood].

Of 418 stool specimens of infants tested, 45 specimens contained adenoviruses, mainly the types 1 and 2, 40 and 41. Infections by these types caused symptoms of the gastrointestinal and the respiratory tract to varying degrees: adenoviruses 40 and 41 frequently caused gastroenteritis, adeno 2 was often associated with diarrhoea, adeno 1 mostly caused illness of the respiratory tract necessitating hospitalization of the infants. As adenoviruses may produce--especially during the first years of life--severe diseases of the respiratory and the gastro-intestinal tract, their detection will be of major importance to the pediatrician, the more so as today's methods of detection of adenoviruses are easier and less time-consuming than in the past.