Rotavirus in newborn nurseries: negative results from Honolulu and the New Hebrides.

• A survey of 100 newborn infants in 2 newborn nurseries in Honolulu and 36 newborns in a hospital in the New Hebrides failed to reveal rotavirus infection, despite its presence in the surrounding community. Rotavirus infection in the neonatal period appears to be endemic in some nurseries in England and Australia, but absent from others in England, Australia, the U.S., and the New Hebrides. The infection is often asymptomatic in neonates. Rotavirus infection in the older infant (6 to 24 months) usually produces gastroenteritis and is common in both industrialized and non-industrialized countries. Whether prior neonatal infection with rotavirus is beneficial or detrimental to the older child is unknown. Longitudinal studies of rotavirus infections of children beginning at birth would be required to answer this question, and to explore the reasons for the uneven distribution of rotavirus among various newborn nurseries. Rotaviruses are the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in young children; over 50% of infants have been infected by the age of 2 years.' These viruses are prevalent during the winter months in the temperature zones and throughout the year in the tropics. 2 In children after the neonatal period, the presence of