Gastroenteritis Due to Rotavirus in an Isolated Pacific Island Group: An Epidemic of 3,439 Cases

In the spring of 1964, 3,439 cases of acute gastroenteritis were reported from Truk District, an island group in the mid-Pacific. The causative agent was not identified in laboratory studies performed in that year. Retrospective serologic studies 15 years later with the complement fixation test and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay provided serologic evidence that this outbreak was caused by the human rotavirus that was first isolated in 1973.