Echovirus 11 infections of newborns with mortality during the 1979 enterovirus season in Milwaukee, Wis.

ECHOVIRUS type 11 (ECHO-11) has been implicated in severe neonatal infections that have resulted in death in nursery outbreaks (1,2). Other echoviruses, particularly types 3, 6, 9, and 14 have caused congenital and neonatal infections (3). The literature suggests that severe and fatal echovirus infections in newborns generally are confined to nursery epidemics and are acquired in the hospital (1).