Isolation of a Cytopathogenic Agent from an Infant with a Disease in Certain Respects Resembling Roseola Infantum

Abstract

An agent cytopathogenic in tissue cultures for cells of human origin was isolated from the feces of a 2 year old patient, R.S., with a 3 day febrile illness characterized by a skin eruption. Development of neutralizing and complement fixing antibodies reacting with the agent was demonstrated in the patient's convalescent serum. Preliminary serologic studies indicated that the agent isolated from patient R.S. and the group of cytopathogenic agents isolated from other patients with an epidemic exanthem illness were not related. The agent from R.S. characteristically induced a peculiar type of nuclear degeneration in roller cultures of human embryonic skin-muscle, foreskin, uterine and kidney tissues. Clinical features of the illness in patient R.S. suggest that the disease may have been roseola infantum.