In Japan, aseptic meningitis cases due to enterovirus infections increase every summer in various degrees with an incidence peak usually in July. During the past 11 years from 1981 through 1991, a total of
8
, 595 enterovirus isolations from aseptic meningitis cases were reported from 54 participating laboratories. Eight enterovirus types caused large epidemics; more than 100 isolations of each type from aseptic meningitis cases were reported for every epidemic year of the respective type. They were coxsackievirus (C) types
B
3
and
B
5
, echovirus (
E
) types 4,
6
,
7
,
9
, 18 and 30. Among these, the highest meningitisassociating frequency was reported for
E
30, representing
82
.
6
% of the total isolations reported for the type during this period, followed by
E
4, 71.
1
%. The frequencies of
E
9
,
E
7
,
E
6
and CB
5
were in a range from 54.
5
% to 44.4%, while that of
E
18 was 37.
7
% and that of CB
3
21.0%. During the epidemics, enterovirusassociated meningitis was most frequently reported among children of 4-
7
years of age. High frequencies were also shown in infants less than
1
-year of age in some types. A total of 4, 240 enteroviruses were isolated from cerebrospinal fluid of aseptic meningitis cases, representing 49.
3
% of the cases with enterovirus isolation.
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