Viral isolates of intussusception in Nigerian infants

Idiopathic intussusception is associated with viral pathogens of gastrointestinal respiratory and febrile diseases of infancy and early childhood. These agents are known to vary from one region to another. No such specific viruses have, however, been reported from Nigeria. We therefore collected stools from 28 infants with intussusception as well as 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls and subjected these specimens to viral isolation techniques. Of the 21 viral isolates obtained from the two groups, 17 (81%) were from the intussusception group while 4 (19%) were from the controls. Ten (58.8%) of the 17 isolates from these subjects were identified as adenoviruses using monoclonal antibody. All of them were from the intussusception group. None of the four isolates from the controls significantly reacted with this antibody. We concluded that adenoviruses are strongly associated with primary intussusception in Nigerian infants.