Microbial agents in stools of infants and young children with and without acute diarrhoeal disease.
A study on the microbial agents in the stools of 344 infants and young children (206 diarrhoeal and 138 nondiarrhoeal) was carried out. The diarrhoeal group comprised of 120 hospitalised cases and 86 from a community. The numbers of nondiarrhoeal subjects of matching age taken from the same hospital and community were 50 and 88 respectively. It was revealed that bacteria (50-9%), parasites (11-7%), and C. albicans (2-4%) accounted for 65 per cent of the diarrhoea cases, 6-8 per cent having mixed infections. The largest number of cases had EEC followed by P. aeruginosa, Shige-la, V. cholerae, and A, hydrophila and of the parasites G. intestinalis was followed by E. histolytica in order of frequency. Enteropathogenic bacteria and parasites were encountered in 13-0 per cent and 34.8 per cent of the nondiarrhoeal subjects respectively, 7-2 per cent having mixed infections. This group also had EEC as the commonest bacteria and A. lumbricoides was the most prevalent parasite. Except for V. cholerae, A. hydrophila and C. albicans no significant difference was observed in the microbial spectra amongst the diarrhoeal cases in the hospital or community. In the nondiarrhoeal subjects both groups showed a similar prevalence pattern. Incidence of bacterial pathogens was significantly higher in children below two years and intestinal parasites were three times more common in older children.