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Bernard N. Fields, MD

JAMA. 1983;250(13):1754-1756.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

VIRUSES are capable of causing a wide variety of clinical illnesses.¹ Such illnesses vary from asymptomatic or mild infections, such as the common cold, to rapidly progressive fatal infections, such as rabies or herpes encephalitis. In addition to differing in the severity of illness, different viruses are associated with highly distinct patterns of illness. For example, the most common of all clinical illnesses are associated with infections of surface epithelial cells, either the respiratory epithelium of the tracheobronchial tree (as best illustrated by influenza) or gastrointestinal (GI) tract absorptive cells (as seen in the diarrheal illnesses caused by the human rotaviruses).² In both of these instances, the infection is usually limited to epithelial cells directly in contact with the primary portal of entry, the nose or the mouth. A second general pattern of infection is illustrated by a wide variety of viruses that, after entering through a primary . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, and the Department of Medicine and Infectious Disease, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck St, Boston, MA 02115 (Dr Fields).

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