1958 Volume 11 Issue 6 Pages 467-481
Since Jawetz, Nicholas, Thygeson and Hanna (1955) isolated adenovirus type 8 as a causative agent from a case of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis, considerable attention has been paid to the etiology of this disease entity (Jawetz, Kimura, Hanna, Coleman, Thygeson and Nicholas, 1955; Jawetz, Thygeson, Hanna, Nicholas and Kimura, 1956; Mitsui and Jawetz, 1957; Leopold, 1957; Sommerville, 1957; 1958), including human volunteer experiments (Mitsui, Hanabusa, Minaoda and Ogata, 1957; Jawetz, Thygeson, Hanna, Nicholas and Kimura, 1957) .
In September, 1957, an epidemic keratoconjunctivitis was encountered in Ogaki City, Gifu Prefecture and its vicinity, and about 100 school children were presumed to be involved in it, whereas many patients were of course found among other age groups. Adenovirus type 8 was isolated from some patients examined and in addition to this, some of the patients were found to show antibody rise against this virus at their convalescent sera. The present publication is devoted to describe the epidemic epidemiologically and etiologically.
