RESUMO
In order to establish the role of adenovirus in gastroenteritis in Nigerian children, stool samples were collected from 138 young children with gastroenteritis and 29 other age-matched controls. The samples were inoculated into 6 different tissue culture cell lines and isolates with characteristic CPE were subjected to CFT confirmation of the presence of adenovirus antigen. All the samples were screened for adenovirus by a commercially available enzyme immunoassay (Biotrin Adenovirus Antigen EIA) for the presence of the group antigen. Of the 138 stool samples from children with diarrhoea screened by EIA, only 23 (16.7%) were positive, while 4 (13.8%) of the 29 controls were also found positive. A greater proportion of the adenovirus-positive cases were aged between 13 and 24 months. There was no difference in the prevalence of the infection between male and female. The fastidious, enteric adenoviruses of subgroup F were sought utilizing a second EIA (AdenoClone), and occurred in 3.6% of the samples from diarrhoeic children and was not detected in the control group. There was no significant difference between the clinical symptoms of children infected with adenovirus and those not infected with adenovirus. However, the source of drinking water had a significant effect on the frequency of stool per day. The infection occurred all year round except for April and there was no significant correlation with the climatic factors. This study implies that the fastidious adenovirus is important in the aetiology of diarrhoeal illness in Nigerian children.