Aseptic meningitis due to infection with ECHO virus (Type 9)

Abstract

Eleven cases of aseptic meningitis occurred in a Cambridgeshire village between 17 October and 11 November 1955. The syndrome consisted of severe headache, backache, vomiting, fever and neck stiffness together with lymphocytes and frequently some granulocytes in the cerebrospinal fluid. Principally, it affected persons aged between 10 and 30 years. Out of a total population twenty-three at risk, seventeen were infected and eight became ill. A further three contacts who were living in Cambridge became ill.Identical strains of virus were isolated from the faeces of two patients by inoculation of trypsin-dispersed human amnion cells and from the faeces of another two patients by inoculation of monkey kidney cultures. Bourn virus, which belonged to the ECHO group, Type 9, multiplied readily and produced cytopathogenic effects in human amnion and monkey kidney cultures, but it was not cytopathogenic in HeLa cell cultures. These investigations strongly suggest that Bourn virus caused the epidemic.We wish to thank Dr M. G. P. Stoker for his advice and criticism and Mrs B. M. Cook for technical assistance.We are indebted to Dr J. O'H. Tobin and Dr F. K. Sanders for advice on certain technical procedures.It is a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance given by many colleagues and friends, including Dr D. I. Annear, Miss D. K. Bell, Mrs D. Ditchburn, Dr R. M. Fry, Dr D. Gairdner, Dr J. E. Power, Dr D. Simpson, Dr P. Tyzer and Dr P. J. Wormald.