Epidemiological survey on bacterial, viral and parasitic agents in patients affected by acute enteritis

Abstract

During the period June 1983-May 1984, faecal specimens from 797 patients with acute enteritis were examined for the presence of bacterial, viral and parasitic agents; 209 (26.2%) enteritic pathogens were identified, of whom 118 (35.4%) in 333 samples from the pediatrics wards. Bacterial agents were detected in 122 (15.3%), viruses in 63 (7.9%) and parasites in 25 (3.1%) of the 797 specimens. LT-producing E. coli, Salmonella and Rotavirus were the most frequent pathogens. Bacterial agents occurred most frequently in the summer and autumnal months, whereas viruses showed two peaks, the first one in summer due to cultivable agents, the second in winter to Rotavirus mainly.

Etiology of Diarrhea in Pediatric Outpatient Settings

“…Seasonal variation was also consistent with previous studies, 4,6,13,14 with the spring/summer seasons associated with bacterial infection and the winter/spring seasons associated with viruses, particularly rotavirus. Our findings that a history of blood in the stool, increasing quantity of stools, abdominal tenderness on physical examination and the presence of white or red blood cells in the stool are risk factors for bacterial infection are similar to reports from DeWitt et al 5 and de Wit et al 13 All of those with diarrheagenic bacterial pathogens or C. difficile toxin had at least 1 of the above risk factors.…”

Enteric Protozoa in the Developed World: a Public Health Perspective

“…However, enteric parasites-mainly protozoa-are isolated from 1% to 65% of patients with diarrhea in various settings. The relative prevalences of enteric protozoa reported in several developed countries in outbreak and nonoutbreak settings among humans are reported in Table 1 (1, 11,12,24,60,85,90,96,128,144,184,192,193,204,215,225,247,248,255,264,265,301,335,355,370,395,416,417,425,442,444,452,467). Giardia intestinalis (0.2% to 29.2% of cases), Cryptosporidium spp.…”