The human enteric coronaviruses

Abstract

A coronavirus was seen in the faeces from 15 (4·2%) of 355 adults with diarrhoea and from 5 (5·2%) of 96 adults without diarrhoea. Similar particles were seen in the faeces from 5 (2·2%) of 227 children aged 1-14 years with gastroenteritis, but in none of those from 230 infants under one year of age with gastroenteritis. There was no evidence that the coronavirus was responsible for any of 34 outbreaks of gastroenteritis, although it possibly caused diarrhoea in patients admitted to a psycho-geriatric unit. Excretion of the virus often continued for many months. One strain was propagated in human embryo kidney monolayers and human embryo intestinal organ cultures, although serial passage could not be accomplished. © 1979 The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine.