RESUMO
Background: Persistent diarrhoea is a major health problem for children in developing countries. Aims: This study was carried out to assess the microbial agents of persistent diarrhoea as well as other associated factors of infection. Methodology: Faecal and blood samples were collected from children less than 5 years of age with persistent diarrhoea in Edo State, Nigeria. The faecal specimens were processed using standard microbiological methods while the blood specimens were processed for malaria parasites using staining technique. Results: The overall results showed a prevalence of 42(25.1%). Single infection was 37(22.2%) while mixed infection had 5(3.0%). Rotavirus was the most prevalent microbial agent (23.4%), followed by cryptosporidium species (14.9%). Sex and age did not show statistical significance (P>0.05). The effects of associated factors of infection on diarrhoeal patients was not statistically significant (P>0.05), although, undernourished, low socioeconomic status and not breastfeeding children had higher rates of infection than their counterparts. Conclusion: Persistent diarrhoea is not uncommon in this locality since the prevalence rate was 25.1% Thus, preventive measures should be put in place to address the associated factors of persistent diarrhoea in order to minimize the reoccurrence of the infection.
RESUMO
Noroviruses (NoVs) cause major epidemic gastroenteritis in humans. To obtain the molecular epidemiological information on gastroenteritis sporadic cases in Incheon city, Korea, we analyzed the nucleotide sequences of NoV strains detected during 2005~2007. We performed one step RT-PCR amplifying the open reading frame (ORF) 2 (capsid region) followed by semi-nested PCR from the stool samples from acute gastroenteritis patients from 2005 to 2007. Amplicons of the capsid region of norovirus strains were sequenced and analyzed using MegAlign in DNAstar software. Faecal samples were collected from 6,618 acute gastroenteritis patients during the study period. The incidence of NoV infection was about 10.7% (n=708) among patients with acute gastroenteritis and genotypes of the 320 positive samples were determined by sequence analysis. Sequence comparison of NoV strains revealed that 16 genotypes of GII NoV strains were circulated in Incheon city, from 2005 to 2007. Among norovirus strains, the most prevalent genotype GII/4 was most common 69.7% (223 strains), followed by GII/3 17.2% (55 strains), GII/12 4.4% (14 strains), GII/1 2.2% (7 strains), GII/5 1.6% (5 strains), GII/15 1.3% (4 strains) and 0.6% (2 strains) each of GII/9 and GII/16. The GII-3 strains were most frequently detected in Incheon, 2005. From the phylogenetic analysis of NoV strains, we detected 16 genotypes of GII NoV strains during 2005~2007 in Incheon. Our results suggest that various genotypes of human NoV strains in sporadic case of AGE were circulated in Incheon, Korea.