Epidemiological study on yersiniosis in pediatric acute diarrhea [with 5 tables and 5 figures]

ABSTRACT

Yersiniosis is considered one of the most important bacterial foodborne infections as their incidence among humans had increased dramatically. A total of one hundred and fifty random samples were collected from children with acute diarrhea. 50 of them had blood in stools and 100 had no blood in their stools. Samples were collected from the gastroenterology unit of Assiut University Children Hospital during the period from January to December 2005. The present study was designed to estimate the incidence of Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis among diarrheal children with and without blood in stools. Moreover, demographic and clinical characteristics of the Yersinia infected children were investigated. Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis could be detected in 17.33% and 13.33% of the examined children, respectively. Ecological distribution of the examined children revealed that the rate of infection was higher in rural areas [52.9%] than in urban areas [11.25%]. The majority of cases in the present study were in the age group of [> 24-60months] with a rate of [87.5%], followed by those in age group of [7 -24 months] with a rate of 18.33%. It has been determined that incidence of Yersinia species was higher among females [33.33%] than males [29.52%]. Seasonal incidence of the infection by Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis was studied. Public health hazard and preventive measures to control infection were discussed