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DURING the past two decades viral causes of gastroenteritis have been uncovered for the first time, and viruses have joined bacteria and parasites as recognized pathogens involved in medically important diarrheal disease. For example, rotavirus is now known to be the most common cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children; each year it accounts for about 3.5 million cases of illness in the United States, resulting in 35 percent of the hospitalizations for gastroenteritis and 75 to 150 deaths.^{1 2 3} In addition, a study of diseases affecting families in Cleveland over a 10-year period indicated that infectious nonbacterial gastroenteritis . . .