Efficiency of Antiseptics When Acting on Dried Organisms

CLINICAL CLUES IN VIRUS INFECTIONS MB~mJoupthe "winter vomiting disease " or epidemic gastro- enteritis which seem to be due to virus infections and yet no agents have so far been cultivated from such cases; so we need more studies by virologists to find new methods for cultivating these.Finally, a group of compounds which was originally presented to virologists as a tool for studying the nucleic acid of the virus has just been shown to have a chemotherapeutic effect on herpetic infections of the eye of man.Perhaps specific virus chemotherapy is not so far off after all (Kaufman, 1962).Summary A combination of improved laboratory methods and clinical observation is rapidly advancing our under- standing of virus infections of man.Some recent examples are given.Certain acute infections with a prominent rash and affecting children have been shown to be due to enteroviruses.Chicken-pox and herpes zoster are due to infections with the same virus.Herpes simplex virus may cause a whitlow.The Eaton agent is now known to be a mycoplasma (pleuropneumonia- like organism), and the pneumonia it produces can be effectively treated with demethylchlortetracycline. The common-cold syndrome can be produced by a variety of viruses, including parainfluenza viruses, respiratory syncytial viruses, and rhinoviruses. AddendumThe REOviruses, once called E.C.H.O. 10 virus, are biologically quite distinct from the enteroviruses, but, like them, may be found in the throat and faeces.Lerner et al. (1962) have reported on patients infected with REOvirus type 2 and five of these had an itchy maculopapular rash, while one had a vesicular rash.Perhaps this is yet another virus which can cause a rash disease.Large numbers of rhinoviruses have now been isolated in various laboratories from cases of the common-cold syndrome (Johnson et al., 1962; Ketler et al., 1962; Mogabgab, 1962; Reilly et al., 1962).The position is confused, as names such as " coryza virus " and " entero- like virus" have been used, and all the strains have not yet been compared with each other, but there are probably scores of serotypes.Virus isolations from more severe types of acute respiratory illness have been reported, but it was not proved that the virus isolated caused the disease.