Acute Infectious Nonbacterial Gastroenteritis: Etiology and Pathogenesis

Abstract

Acute infectious nonbacterial gastroenteritis is a common syndrome of obscure cause. Although widespread epidemiological and clinical data point to an infectious cause, etiologic agents have not been recovered in the laboratory despite extensive efforts. Recent studies, employing volunteers as the experimental host, indicate that the etiologic agent of one outbreak is a small, ether-stable, acid-stable, relatively heat-stable virus present in the stools of patients acutely ill with the disease. Preliminary evidence suggests that the agent will replicate in vitro in a newly devised culture medium, human fetal-intestinal organ culture. Experimental and naturally occurring cases remit spontaneously without sequels, but during the acute illness patients have transient malabsorption of D-xylose, lactose, and fat. The pathogenesis of infectious diarrheas, with respect to known bacterial pathogens and possible viral agents, is discussed.