title: Giardia duodenalis assemblages associated with diarrhea in children in South India identified by PCR-RFLP.
abstract: Giardial diarrhea in a birth cohort of 452 children in an urban slum in South India was characterized. Of the 155 episodes that occurred in 99 children, 73% were acute diarrhea. Children with better educated mothers and a toilet at home had lower odds of acquiring giardial diarrhea, whereas low socioeconomic status and drinking municipal water were associated with greater risk. Children with co-infections tended to have a slightly longer duration of diarrhea (P = 0.061) and showed significantly more wasting after an episode than children with diarrhea resulting from Giardia alone (P = 0.032). Among the 99 cases, 50 diarrheal and 51 asymptomatic Giardia positive samples were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) at the triose phosphate isomerase gene. Assemblage B was predominant both in giardial diarrhea (80%) and asymptomatic giardiasis (94%). Children with Assemblage A subgroup-II alone or dual infections with both assemblage A and B had diarrhea more frequently (P = 0.07).
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Sciences, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. sitararao@cmcvellore.ac.in
authors.forename: Sitara S R
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Ajjampur
authors.forename: Premi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sankaran
authors.forename: Arun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kannan
authors.forename: Kirthi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sathyakumar
authors.forename: Rajiv
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: Beryl P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Gladstone
authors.forename: Gagandeep
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kang
mesh_terms: D000333:Aeromonas / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000818:Animals; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003458:Cryptosporidium / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000821:virology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000821:virology; D016829:Giardia lamblia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005873:Giardiasis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007223:Infant; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D011203:Poverty; D012008:Recurrence; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012475:Salmonella / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012760:Shigella / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014734:Vibrio cholerae / Q000302:isolation & purification