Eight years of experience with molecular identification of human enteroviruses.

We have successfully typed 1,121 human enterovirus (HEV) isolates during the last 8 years by adapting partial VP1 sequencing to routine identification of HEV isolated from diverse clinical and environmental specimens. The isolates include 48 of the 59 traditional nonpoliovirus HEV serotypes and members of 8 newly discovered types, which would have remained untypeable by neutralization using the conventional cross-sectional pools of antisera.