title: Enteropathogens associated with acute and persistent diarrhea in Bangladeshi children less than 5 years of age.
abstract: A longitudinal study of diarrhea was carried out from May 1988 to April 1989 by household surveillance of 705 children less than 5 years old in rural Bangladesh. Stool samples were examined for enteric pathogens at the beginning of each diarrheal episode. For persistent episodes, stool examination was repeated on days 15-17 of the illness. For each case of persistent diarrhea, stool samples from age-matched acute diarrheal and healthy controls were examined. Compared with healthy controls, cases of diarrhea were associated with Shigella species (P = .07) and rotavirus (P less than .05). Diffusely adherent Escherichia coli (P less than .05) and cryptosporidia (P = .07) were the only enteropathogens associated with persistent diarrhea in comparison with acute diarrhea. No more than 15% of children had the same class of pathogen identified from stool on both days 1-3 and days 15-17, indicating that persistent infection was uncommon. However, a different enteropathogen was frequently found on days 15-17, suggesting that sequential infection may be a cause of persistent diarrhea.
authors.affiliation: Community Health Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka.
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Baqui
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Sack
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Haider
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hossain
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Alim
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yunus
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Siddique
mesh_terms: D001459:Bangladesh; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D004754:Enterobacter / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D012423:Rural Health