Two-year survey of etiologic agents of diarrheal disease at San Lazaro Hospital, Manila, Republic of the Philippines

Abstract

The prevalence of bacterial pathogens and rotavirus in 2,908 patients with diarrhea who were admitted to San Lazaro Hospital in Manila in 1983 and 1984 was determined. One or more enteric pathogens were isolated or detected in samples from 1,698 (58.4%) patients. Isolation rates for the various enteropathogens were as follows: rotavirus, 30.6%; Shigella spp., 11.6%; Salmonella spp., 9.2%; enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (1983 only), 7.8%; Vibrio cholerae biotype eltor, 3.8%; non-Ol V. cholerae, 2.8%; Vibrio parahaemolyticus, 1.7%; other Vibrio spp., 1.1%; Campylobacter jejuni, 3.0%; Aeromonas hydrophila, 1.3%; and Plesiomonas shigeloides 1.1%. Giardia lamblia and Entamoeba histolytica were detected in 0.6 and 0.1%, respectively, of stool samples examined. Determination of the etiologic role of isolates was complicated by one or more of the following factors: (i) isolation of multiple enteric pathogens (302 cases); (il) isolation of Salmonella spp., enterotoxigenic E. coli, and C. jejuni from a similar proportion of asymptomatic control patients and patients with diarrhea; and (iii) isolation of a high proportion of certain pathogens (especially Salmonella spp.) only from enrichment broth, suggesting infection with a small number of organisms. Isolation of V. cholerae eltor was seasonal, with the majority of cases occurring in the rainy months. In addition, the number of patients with diarrhea increased with the onset of the monsoon rains and peaked during the months of maximum rainfall. Rotavirus infection occurred in both children and adults throughout the year and was the most frequently identified cause of diarrhea in children under 5 years of age. Shigella spp. were the most common agents of diarrhea in adults.

Early child health in Lahore, Pakistan: VIII. Microbiology

“…The percentage of occurrence of Rota virus was not more in the children under two years of age in our study. This is in contrast to the results from other countries, where Rota virus was significantly higher in children being less than two years of age (1,23,25,35).…”

“…The prevalence and relative frequency reported from Bangladesh and South Africa was between 1522% (43,44). The recovery rate in our study using correct technique (12 %) was comparable with those reported from other countries such as Hong Kong, Egypt and Phillipines (25,40,41), which was in the range of Initially, Butzler's and Skirrow's medium (16,17) were utilized for the isolation of Campylobacter. The rate in our study increased from 1.6% to 12% after the improvement of isolation technique, by using the new Blood-Free-Selective medium during the last two years of the study (18, 45 46).…”

Enteropathogens associated with acute diarrhea in community and hospital patients in Jakarta, Indonesia

“…Other pathogens of importance in adults were Salmonella spp. and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (rarely isolated from children under 5 years old) [6]. In this study, only one infant was found to have V. parahaemolyticus.…”

Pili of Aeromonas hydrophila: Purification, Characterization, and Biological Role

“…Aeromonas has been recognized as a human enteropathogen since around 1970 (3). Investigators have increasingly directed their attention to Aeromonas in recent years because of the high frequency of disease with a variety of symptoms (2,15,20,24). The isolation rate of this relatively new enteropathogen from diarrheal stools has varied from report to report, such as 33% in Bangladesh (15), 1 to 2% in the Philippines (2), about 10% in the U.S.A. and Japan (20,24), 30 to 50% in Peru (25), etc.…”