The present invention discloses a method for detecting the presence of an enterovirus in a clinical sample. The invention additionally discloses a method for typing an enterovirus in a clinical sample. Both methods employ a set of primer oligonucleotides for reverse transcription and amplification that hybridize to conserved regions of the enterovirus genome, and that provide amplicons that include significant portions of the VP1 region that are characteristic of the various serotypes. In the typing method, the invention further provides a database consisting of nucleotide sequences from prototypical enteroviral serotypes, which is used to type the clinical sample by comparing the sequence of its amplicon with each prototypical sequence in the database. The invention additionally provides mixtures of primer oligonucleotides, and a kit for use in conducting the typing method that includes a mixture of the primer oligonucleotides.