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Disease Due to Echo Virus Type 9 in Massachusetts, 1958

List of authors.
  • Sidney Kibrick, M.D., Ph.D.†,
  • and John F. Enders, Ph.D.‡

IN January, 1958, 2 siblings from Jamaica Plain and A their cousin from Roxbury, both in the Boston area, were admitted to the Children's Medical Center, Boston, with a tentative diagnosis of meningococcus meningitis. All 3 children had, in addition to a pleocytosis, a petechial or a discrete maculopapular rash with petechial elements on the face and neck or chest. The etiologic agent in each case was identified by Dr. Thomas E. Frothingham of this laboratory as ECHO virus Type 9. A report of these cases appears elsewhere in this issue of the Journal. The presence of this agent in . . .

Funding and Disclosures

* From the Research Division of Infectious Diseases, Children's Medical Center, Boston.

Supported in part by Research Grant E-1992 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, United States Public Health Services.

Since this paper was submitted for publication numerous cases clinically consistent with a disease due to ECHO virus Type 9 have been observed in various parts of Boston and in surrounding communities. Studies on a sampling of such patients were performed both by Dr. Christopher Martin, of Dr. Maxwell Finland's laboratory, Boston City Hospital, and by ourselves. These investigations have resulted in the isolation of ECHO virus Type 9 from throat swabbings, cerebrospinal fluids or feces, or all three, of 20 additional patients. The geographic distribution of these newer cases, which have been confirmed by laboratory studies, includes, in addition to the communities previously noted, Charlestown, Revere, Roxbury, Waltham and Weston. Outbreaks of this disease have occurred also in two separate housing projects in the Boston area.

Author Affiliations

†Associate, Research Division of Infectious Diseases.

‡Chief, Research Division of Infectious Diseases.

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