The Isolation of Adenovirus Type 1 from a Fatal Case of Viral "Pneumonitis"

Abstract

The etiology of acute respiratory infections of childhood and infancy often remains obscure. Progress has been made, however, in the classification of these illnesses by the recent discovery of a new group of viruses, subdivided into distinct serotypes, which are now referred to as adenoviruses,¹ formerly the APC,² RI,³ or ARD⁴ groups. Adenoviruses have been shown to be a cause of undifferentiated acute respiratory disease, nonstreptococcal exudative pharyngitis, and primary atypical pneumonia. They were also found to be associated with a clinical entity designated pharyngoconjunctival fever, which may assume epidemic proportions.^3-8 Other illnesses have been ascribed to these agents which include epidemic keratoconjunctivitis^9,10 and mesenteric lymphadenitis,¹¹ and a Type 3 of these agents has been isolated from a stool of an infant with a disease resembling roseola infantum.¹² While in general the diseases induced appear to be relatively mild, adenoviruses have been isolated from the lungs of two fatal cases