Etiologic agents, clinical and laboratory characteristics of acute versus persistent diarrhoea in children who attended the Yangon Children's Hospital

ABSTRACT

To identify the etiologic agents, clinical and laboratory characteristics of acute and persistent diarrhoea in children less than 12 years of age, a hospital based prospective study was carried out for 18 months in Yangon Children's Hospital. A total of 487 children, 327 with acute and 160 with persistent diarrhoea participated in the study. Intestinal pathogens including bacterial agent 31 per cent, viral agent 6.3 per cent and protozoa 33 per cent were detected in 71 per cent of persistent diarrhoea cases, whereas in acute diarrhoea cases intestinal pathogens were identified in 64 per cent, among which bacterial, viral and protozoal agents were 28 per cent, 11.5 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. More than one enteric pathogen was detected in 13.7 per cent and 16.5 per cent of persistent and acute diarrhoea cases respectively. male children who suffered from diarrhoea were more than females and peak incidence of acute and persistent diarrhoea occurred in the 2-11 month age group. fever and vomiting were found more frequent in persistent than acute diarrhoea during second week of illness and differences were statistically significant. Shigella species, ETEC and e. histolytica were equally isolated from both acute and persistent diarrhoea whereas rota virus was found more ofter in acute than persistent diarrhoea. The presence of leucocytes and reducing substances in the stool was equally frequent.