Enteropathogens associated with diarrheal disease in infants of poor urban areas of Porto Velho, Rondônia: a preliminary study

ABSTRACT

One hundred and thirty cases of diarrhea and 43 age-matched controls, 0 to 5 years old, were studied in a pediatric outpatient unit from a poor peri urban area of Porto Velho, Rondônia. Eighty percent of diarrheal cases were observed in the groups under 2 years of age. Rotavirus (19.2 percent) was the most frequent enteropathogen associated with diarrhea, followed by Shigella flexneri (6.15 percent) and S. sonnei (1.5 percent) and Salmonella sp. (6.9 percent). Four cases of E. coli enterotoxigenic infections (3.1 percent), E. coli enteropathogenic (EPEC)(2.3 percent) one case of E. coli enteroinvasive infection (0.8 percent) and one case of Yersinia enterocolitica (0.8 percent) were also identified. Mixed infections were frequent, associating rotavirus, EPEC and Salmonella sp. with Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia