Polyradiculoneuritis in children groups during simultaneous circulation of enteroviruses and adenoviruses.

Two cases of polyradiculoneuritis in children were noted during January, 1984. Each girl was a member of a different group of children: the first group was newly constituted of children from various remote regions of Czechoslovakia in a Medical Institution, the second one included children attending the same nursery school for a long time. In both groups, all or most of the children went through one or two respiratory infections which preceded the development of a paralytic disease. From the first girl, coxsackievirus A9 was recovered in nasopharyngeal swabs and in a stool sample. Among contacts in the Children's Medical Institution, a concurrent circulation of this enterovirus and of an adenovirus type 3 was demonstrated by isolation attempts and confirmed by serological examinations. From the second girl, coxsackie A9 and an adenovirus type 29 were demonstrated in the same stool sample and a simultaneous circulation of both virus species among the nursery school and family contacts was proved by isolation attempts and by serological investigations. The concurrent, overlapping or sequential circulation of adenoviruses and enteroviruses may perhaps contribute to a compromised immunity resulting in a manifestation of paralysis.