Asymptomatic infections by diarrheagenic Escherichia coli in children from Misiones, Argentina, during the first twenty months of their lives

Diarrheagenics Escherichia coli are the major agents involved in diarrheal disease in developing countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the time of appearance of the first asymptomatic infection by the different categories of diarrheagenic E. coli in 44 children since their birth and during the first 20 months of their lives. In all of the children studied, we detected at least one category of diarrheagenic E. coli through the 20 months of the study. 510 diarrheagenic E. coli (33.5 percent) were obtained from the 1,524 samples collected from the 44 children during the time of the study (31.4 percent EAggEC, 28.8 percent EPEC, 27.1 percent DAEC, and 12.7 percent ETEC). Neither EHEC nor EIEC were identified. The median age for diarrheagenic E. coli colonization was 7.5 months. The mean weaning period was 12.8 months and the mean age for introduction of mixed feeding (breast fed supplemented) was 3.8 months. A significantly lower incidence of diarrheal disease and asymptomatic infections was recorded among the exclusively breast-fed rather than in the supplemented and non breast-fed infants. For ETEC, EPEC and EAggEC the introduction of weaning foods and complete termination of breast-feeding were associated with an increase of asymptomatic infections

Prospective study of enteropathogens in two communities of Misiones, Argentina

Ninos menores de cinco anos de edad de dos comunidades de diferente condicion socio-economica (97 del Barrio Zaiman y 55 del Barrio Las Dolores), fueron vigilados epidemiologicamente durante 2 anos, mediante visitas trimestrales del equipo de trabajo, el que realizo la toma de muestras fecales. Durante el estudio, se identificaron uno o mas enteropatogenos en el 73,9 por cento de las muestras de ninos del Barrio Zaiman y en el 58,3 por cento de Las Dolores, estando asociados a diarrea en un 70,5 por cento y en infecciones asintomaticas en un 65,7 por cento. El numero de episodios de diarrea fue superior en Zaiman (15,5 por cento) que en Las Dolores (12,4 por cento), presentandose con mayor frecuencia en los meses de primavera-verano...