Epidemiologic and Clinical Features of Enteroviral Infections in Children: 1996~1998

Park, Jung Sick; Kim, Mi Ran; Kim, Dug Ha; Park, Chong Young; Lee, Kon Hee; Lee, Hae Ran; Kang, Hee Jung; Lee, Kyu Man

Abstract

PURPOSE
As several epidemics of aseptic meningitis had been reported in Korea since 1990, the need of epidemiologic study about enteroviral infections was recognized. We studied epidemiologic and clinical features of enteroviral infections in children.
METHODS
We analyzed the seasonal occurrence of enteroviral infections and age, sex and clinical diagnosis of the children admitted to five branch hospitals of Hallym University and diagnosed to have enteroviral infections by culture from January 1996 to December 1998.
RESULTS
Enterovirus was isolated in 126 out of 245(51.4%) stools, 15 out of 89(16.8%)nasopharyngeal aspirates and 195 out of 1,835(10.6%) cerebrospinal fluids. There were 273 echoviruses(Echo)(197 Echo 30, 46 Echo 9, 17 Echo 6, 13 unclassified), 24 coxsackieviruses B(CB)(11 CB 2, 2 CB 5, 11 unclassified), 7 coxsackieviruses A 24and 32 unclassified enteroviruses. Yearly number of isolates was 65(46 Echo 9) in 1996, 239(197 Echo 30) in 1997 and 32(15 CB : 9 CB 2) in 1998. Epidemics of enteroviruses occurred mainly during the months May to October. The mean age of the infected children was 62.1±38.0 months and 74.6% of the patients were younger than 7 years of age. There were 203 boys and 100 girls and 79.3% of the patients were diagnosed as aseptic meningitis.
CONCLUSIONS
We confirmed that enteroviral infections occurred in epidemics from latespring to fall during the study period. Enteroviral infections occurred predominantly in boys and the preschool children. Aseptic meningitis was the main illness in the hospitalized children.