Adenovirus surveillance, 1982-1993, Japan. A report of the National Epidemiological Surveillance of Infectious Agents in Japan.

The Infectious Agents Surveillance Center, the National Institute of Health, Japan, received 17,265 reports from 1982 to 1993 on cases from whom adenovirus was isolated or detected; 85% from 57 public health institutes and the other 15% from two national hospitals and two commercial diagnostic laboratories. The followings were found. Three major diseases caused by adenovirus were upper respiratory tract infection, gastroenteritis, and conjunctivitis. Patients of upper respiratory tract infection numbered 6,837 (40% of all patients due to adenovirus), the identified serotypes being in order of frequency types 3, 2, 1, and 5. Those of gastroenteritis numbered 1,636 (9.5%). From 40% of the gastroenteritis patients, adenovirus was detected by electron microscopy or immunochemical methods without cultivation. From the remaining 60%, virus was isolated in tissue culture; the serotypes of the isolates resembled those causing upper respiratory tract infection. Patients of conjunctivitis numbered 3,437 (20%), the frequency being in order of types 3, 4, 8, 37, and 19. Conjunctivitis due to types 3 and 4 prevailed every summer; type 3 was isolated often from children with pharyngo-conjunctival fever and the other four types were mostly from adults with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. Type 3 had a unique feature not seen in other types: it was most frequently isolated, causing upper respiratory tract infection, gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, and pharyngo-conjunctival fever. Reports on isolation of type 7, which has been reported to cause severe pneumonia in many other countries, were as few as 28 (0.2%).