it is a discovery of the present inventors that a broad range of enteric viruses which are pathogenic to humans and other mammals are bound by a single glycolipid molecule , namely gangliotetraosylceramide ( ga1 ). this is surprising in view of the fact that these viruses are known to bind to different cellular receptors . this is also surprising because gangliotetraosylceramide is a neutral glycolipid , whereas some reoviridae have already been shown to bind to acidic glycoproteins . the glycolipid of the present invention , also known as asialo - gm1 as well as ga1 , can be used to treat humans both preventively , i . e ., as a prophylactic , as well as therapeutically , i . e ., after infection to diminish the severity of infection . while human enteric viruses have been found to bind to ga1 , other viruses may also employ ga1 as a common binding mechanism to cells . for example , animal viruses may bind to ga1 , as there is evidence that ga1 exists in mouse enterocytes . in addition , other viruses of humans may bind to ga1 , for example , respiratory viruses , such as adenovirus , influenza , parainfluenza , and respiratory syncytial virus . according to the method of the present invention the gangliotetraosylceramide is orally administered . the ga1 glycolipid may be obtained commercially , for example from the sigma chemical co ., st . louis , mo . ga1 can also be prepared by acid hydrolysis of gm1 glycolipid as described in dahms , et al ., j . neuroscience , vol . 3 , pp . 806 - 817 , 1983 . as this neutral glycolipid is acid - stable , it does not need to be protected to survive in the gastrointestinal tract . however , it may be desirable to bind the neutral glycolipid to a non - absorbable support . the selection of a support is within the skill of the art and such supports include beads , resins , natural or synthetic polymers . one particularly preferred non - absorbable support is cholestyramine , which has previously been shown to be effective as an antidiarrheal agent for bacterial pathogens . the neutral glycolipid may be bound to the non - absorbable support via a simple absorption or via a covalent linkage . methods for performing both such types of binding are well known in the art . ( see , e . g ., tiemeyer , et al ., j . biol . chem ., vol . 264 , pp . 1671 - 1681 , 1989 , and taki , et al ., j . biochem . vol . 91 , pp . 1813 - 1816 , 1982 .) if absorption is to be used as the means of attachment , a hydrophobic bead is preferred . other means of administering the neutral glycolipid of the present invention involve forming small lipid particles comprising the gangliotetraosylceramide . such lipid particles may be , for example , vesicles , micelles , or liposomes . in addition , the gangliotetraosylceramide may be administered in the form of a capsule or tablet . suitable formulations can be prepared according to methods well known in the art . see , e . g ., remington &# 39 ; s pharmaceutical sciences , mack publishing co ., easton , pa ., latest edition . although applicants do not wish to be bound by any particular theory , it is thought that bound or particulate forms of the neutral glycolipid may be desirable in order to keep a high local density of the glycolipid . as a treatment for diarrhea , the neutral glycolipid of the present invention has benefits over traditional antibiotic therapy . antibiotics have the undesirable characteristic of being effective against normal gastrointestinal bacterial colonizers . thus antibiotic therapy often leads to infection by secondary infectious agents because the antibiotic has eliminated the normal competitors for the particular ecological niche . rehydration formulae are often administered to replenish electrolytes which are lost due to severe diarrhea . in some cases they are administered intravenously , and in other cases oral administration is successful . in one embodiment of the present invention it is contemplated that at effective amount of the gangliotetraosylceramide will be admixed with a rehydration formula for administration to a patient suffering from diarrhea . sufficient gangliotetraosylceramide should be administered to bind to a substantial portion of the enteric viruses causing the infection so that the infection is diminished . rehydration formulae are well known in the art and are commercially available . in another embodiment of the present invention it is contemplated that the gangliotetraosylceramide of the present invention will be administered in an infant nutrient formula . once again , an effective amount of the gangliotetraosylceramide must be used to bind to enteric viruses in the gastrointestinal tract . infant nutrient formulae are well known in the art and are commercially available . the infant nutrient formula containing the neutral glycolipid of the present invention may be given to children routinely in areas where diarrhea is endemic . alternatively , when a viral diarrhea outbreak is occurring , for example in a hospital , infants can be given the nutrient formula of the present invention in order to prevent spread of the infection to uninfected infants as well as to treat infected infants . an effective amount of gangliotetraosylceramide according to the present invention is one that is effective to bind to the targeted viruses . generally , for oral administration , this will be between about 10 um and about 1 mm . preferably , between about 12 ug and 1 . 2 mg will be administered to a child and between about 200 ug and 10 mg will be administered to an adult . in the case of treatment for respiratory viruses , a different mode of administration is used from that used for gastrointestinal tract infections . in order to reach the pharyngeal colonizers , the glycolipid of the present invention must be aerosolized . this can be accomplished by use of a nebulizer or a gargle . such aerosolization techniques are well known in the art . doses can be determined according to routine testing procedures which correlate amount administered with lowered titer of virus . the following experimental data are presented to exemplify the invention . the invention is however not limited to these examples but is defined by the foregoing description and the claims which follow . this example demonstrates that rotavirus sa11 binds with high specificity to glycolipid ga1 . virus sa11 was grown in ma 104 cells , which are from a rhesus monkey kidney - derived cell line ( available from ma bioproducts , walkersville , md .) using previously described methods . ( hoshino , et al ., infect . immun . 41 : 169 - 173 , 1983 .) various amounts of glycolipids were spotted on high performance thin layer chromatography plates ( glass - backed silica gel plates , 0 . 2 mm thick , available from merck , darmstadt , germany ). the plates were developed in chloroform - methanol - 0 . 25 % kcl ( 60 : 35 : 8 ). after plasticizing with polyisobutyl - methacrylate and blocking with polyvinylpyrrolidone , ( available from sigma chemical co ., st . louis , mo .,) as described in magnani , et al ., ( methods in enzymology , vol . 83 , pp . 235 - 240 , 1982 ,) the glycolipids were probed with labeled virus sa11 . two methods of labeling the virus were used , metabolic labeling with 35 s - methionine and oxidative labeling with 125 i - iodine . all viruses were purified on isopycnic cesium chloride gradients or on metrizamide gradients . rotavirus sa11 bound to : ga1 at concentrations as low as 30 pmol ; to neolactotetraosylcermide ( nlc 4 ) at concentrations of 500 pmol and above ; and to other glycolipids ( gb 4 , g a2 , lac , g d1a , g m1 , g m3 ) only at concentrations greater than 1000 pmol . 1 ga1 and nlc 4 differ only in the substitution of an n - acetyl - glucosamine moiety for an n - acetyl - galactosamine moiety . this example demonstrates that the binding of sa11 rotavirus is exquisitely specific for the ga1 molecule . enzymatic oxidation of the terminal galactose abolishes virus binding . ga1 glycolipid was treated with the enzyme galactose oxidase ( 1 unit ) as well as 4 units of horseradish peroxidase and 20 units of catalase in 50 % tetrahydrafuran overnight at room temperature , and the products were chromatographically separated as described in example 1 . the chromatogram was visualized using char ( 10 % h 2 so 4 and 50 % etoh in water and baked at 120 ° c . for 10 - 15 min . as shown in fig1 b , most of the ga1 was converted to the oxidized ( aldehyde ) form which is faster migrating than genuine ga1 . when the chromatogram was probed with radiolabeled sa1 rotavirus , only genuine ga1 bound virus ; the oxidized form bound no detectable sa11 virus . ( see fig1 ( a ). * ga1 indicates the migration position of the oxidized form of ga1 . this experiment shows the specificity of binding of the sa11 virus to the ga1 glycolipid . chemical oxidative treatment of ga1 with periodate also abolishes sa11 virus binding . this example demonstrates that the sa11 virus binding to ga1 is mediated through an interaction with viral protein vp7 . glycolipids were separated on a chromatogram , as described in example 1 , and probed with radiolabeled sa11 virus . two regions of binding were scraped from the plate , one corresponding to the migration of ga1 and the other corresponding to large amounts of nonpolar lipids . these two regions are labeled b and a , respectively , in fig2 ( a ). the proteins in the scrapings were solubilized in laemmli sample buffer and run on 10 % polyacrylamide gels . ( see fig2 ( b )). lane ( a ) which contains protein scraped from region a shows that many different viral proteins bound to the glycolipid spot containing nonpolar lipids , whereas the ga1 glycolipid bound predominantly protein vp7 ( lane ( b )). lane ( c ) shows the migration of labeled viral proteins which had not been pre - bound to the chromatogram . binding of sa11 rotavirus to ga1 can be blocked by neutralizing antibodies ( directed against vp7 ). however , antibodies raised against vp7 of other serotypes do not block sa11 binding to ga1 . this example demonstrates that all non - enveloped enteric viruses tested exhibit binding to ga1 glycolipid . rotaviruses ( wa , ds - 1 , sa11 , mmu 18006 , ncdv ), reoviruses ( 1 and 3 ), poliovirus 1 , and coxsackievirus 3 were propagated in ma104 cells . coxsackievirus a4 was propagated in rd cells ( a rhabdosarcoma cell line ). the viruses were either metabolically labeled with 35 s - methionine and purified or purified and then labeled with 125 i - iodine . purification of viruses was by isopycnic cesium chloride gradients or by metrizamide gradients . the ability to bind to ga1 was assessed by binding the radiolabeled viruses to glycolipids resolved on thin layer chromatography plates by the method of magnani , supra . all viruses tested bound to ga1 . bovine serum albumin , labeled with 125 i did not bind to ga1 . poliovirus 1 bound to ga1 when it was labeled with 35 s - methionine , but not when labeled with 125 i . this is consistent with references in the literature reporting that the harsh conditions employed to radioiodinate proteins destroy poliovirus infectivity . this example demonstrates that ga1 bound to polystyrene beads is able to reduce - viral infectivity . ga1 ( asialo gm1 ) and gm1 were bound to polystyrene beads by the method of taki , et al . ( j . biochem ., vol . 91 , pp . 1813 - 1816 , 1982 ). briefly , the glycolipids are dispersed in water and the dispersion is heated to 80 ° c . just long enough so that the lipids go into solution . the polystyrene beads are then mixed into the solution and the glycolipids adsorb onto the beads . the glycolipid - coated beads were then mixed with crude sa11 viral lysates and incubated at 37 ° c . for 60 min . the beads were removed by centrifugation and the supernatant was used to infect ma104 cells . the difference in numbers of plaques formed in the control infections ( virus alone ) and in the infections with gm1 - bead treated and ga1 - bead treated lysates are shown in fig3 . on a per lipid basis , ga1 inhibited viral infections 50 - fold greater than gm1 . ga1 inhibition of viral infections was essentially complete . when a different method ( roseman , et al ., unpublished , adapted from schnaar ) was used to bind glycolipids to the polystyrene beads the absolute magnitude of the inhibition was greatly reduced . this method involves the dissolving of ga1 in 50 % ethanol followed by the evaporation of the aqueous component . although the relative inhibition of ga1 was still much greater than gm1 , globoside , gm3 , and gd1a . although the inventors do not wish to be bound by any particular theory , it is believed that the difference is due to the greater number of glycolipids which bind to the beads by the taki method leading to a higher density of glycolipids per bead .