1990 Volume 43 Issue 2 Pages 51-58
Laboratory reports of isolation of echovirus serotype 18 (E18) slightly increased in the summer of 1987 followed by a sharp increase with a peak in July, 1988. A total of 1, 094 isolations were reported during these two years from 39 laboratories participating in the National Epidemiological Surveillance of Infectious Agents in Japan. When compared with the previous E18 outbreaks, a higher proportion of children at two years of age or under (58.3%) and a much higher incidence of exanthem (46.4%) were remarkable. Meningitis-associated isolations were reported in 30.6%, less than half of the percentage of the previous epidemic.
