Transmission of acute infectious nonbacterial gastroenteritis to volunteers by oral administration of stool filtrates

effectively launched the field of what we know today as “viral gastroenteritis. ” Despite 2 prior decades of intensive efforts to identify viral gastroenteritis agents, none were then known, nor was it even certain that viruses actually caused gastroenteritis, hence the use of the term “nonbacterial gastroenteritis. ” By 1971, a golden era of virology had already flourished, success-fully using tissue-culture techniques to cultivate and identify a panoply of respiratory viruses, enteroviruses, herpesviruses, and agents of common childhood dis-eases such as measles, mumps, and rubella. Yet, when these techniques were applied to the study of what ap-peared to be “viral gastroenteritis, ” no agents could be identified. Clearly, a different approach was needed; and this 1971 article provided the framework for opening up this field of inquiry. The agent that was transmitted to volunteers was derived from an outbreak of nonbacterial gastroenter-itis that occurred in Norwalk, Ohio, in 1968 [2]; this agent is now called “Norwalk virus, ” the first viral gas-troenteritis agent to be identified. Stimulated by the discovery of Norwalk virus, intensive efforts were made around the world during the 1970s to identify other viral gastroenteritis agents; and, in short order, these efforts resulted in the identification of the 3 othe