Reovirus-Like Agent and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Infections in Pediatric Diarrhea in the Philippines

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Abstract
Of 82 children hospitalized with diarrhea in the Philippines during January-June 1976, 14 (17%) had infections due to a reovirus-like agent as determined by detection of viral particles in stools by electron microscopy (12 [15%] of 82) and/or by a rise in titer of antibody to the serologically related Nebraska calf diarrhea virus (eight [20%] of 39). Escherichia coli producing heat-labile enterotoxin were found in six (7%) of 82 ill children and two (4%) of 49 healthy control children, while E. coli producing heat-stable enterotoxin were isolated from three children with diarrhea and two without gastroenteritis. Thirty-eight percent of enterotoxigenic E. coli isolated from children with diarrhea, but only 6% of isolates from healthy controls, were of serotypes similar to those of enterotoxigenic E. coli isolated in previous studies of these pathogens by other investigators in geographically diverse areas (serotypes 06:H16, 08:H9, and 078:H12) (P < 0.05). Eight (10%) of the children had infections with multiple enteric pathogens.