Coxsackie A16 Infection From Lake Water

To the Editor.— Some days after bathing in a lake, five children showed symptoms of a disease with identical clinical characteristics. The most frequent were fever, diarrhea, vomiting, gastrointestinal and articular pain, refusal to eat, malaise, and myalgia. Three families refused to allow sera or specimens to be taken from their children, but two boys, 7 and 9 years old, were examined in the pediatrics ward of the Niort Hospital. The two boys showed a few pulmonary rales and reddish eardrums; one had an exanthem. Neither lesions of the mouth, palms, and soles nor clinical and biological symptoms of meningitis were seen. Stool and throat specimens were cultured immediately after collection, and two sera were collected from each patient. For the detection of enteric viruses in four samples (10 liters each) of lake water, we used a virus concentrator (Sartorius) with 12 membranes (160 × 160 mn, SM 12133). Each sample had