Adenovirus Infection in Intussusception in Children in Taiwan

Fifty-seven cases of intussusception were evaluated in Taipei, Taiwan, in a two-year period. Fifteen (26%) of the patients showed adenovirus infection as evidenced by recovery from throat swab, rectal swab, or mesenteric node removed at surgery. Adenovirus infection was demonstrated in only 3 (3%) of 85 neighborhood or wellbaby-clinic controls each matched for age, sex, and time of occurrence. Enterovirus infection was found to be equally frequent in each of the three groups. These study cases were shown to be similar to a ten-year case record review of hospitalized patients in Taipei (1955 to 1964), in regard to predominance of infant patients, high male-female ratio, and predominant seasonal occurrence in the first half of the year. The observations in this study that intussusception of infancy is often associated with adenovirus infection would tend to support the hypothesis that the early enteric spread of adenovirus in Taipei contributes to intussusception.