title: Epidemiology of acute gastroenteritis in early childhood in Kenya: aetiological agents.
abstract: In a case-control study of 36 infants and children admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital with acute gastroenteritis and an equal number of age and sex-matched controls, rotavirus was found to be the major aetiological agents; 39% of the 36 children had evidence of rotavirus infection as opposed to 2 (6%) in controls. Six Shigella species were isolated from the test group and none from the control. No significant difference was found between children with diarrhoea and controls wth regard to frequency of isolation of enteropathogenic and enterotoxigenic E. coli, Salmonella species and enteroviruses. Mixed infections occurred between rotaviruses and other enteropathogens. None of the 17 serum pairs obtained from children with diarrhoea showed a significant titre rise to complement-fixing adenovirus group antigen.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000367:Age Factors; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000382:microbiology; D004770:Enterovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007630:Kenya; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012475:Salmonella / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012760:Shigella / Q000302:isolation & purification