ABSTRACT
Salmonella is an important etiological agent of hospital infection in children, reaching endemic levels in some Brazilian states during the seventies and the eighties. We have prospectively studied twenty five children between four and one hundred eighty days old acutely infected with salmonella non typhi to determine the duration of carrier status and its clinical repercussion. After the diagnosis, the children were submitted monthly to clinical examination, and cultures were collected from skin, oropharynx, urine, stools, genitals, nostrils and auditive conduct. During the follow-up, eighteen (72%) children still had positive culture at four weeks after the diagnosis, ten (40%) at sixteen weeks, four (16%) at twenty weeks, and one (4%) at twenty four weeks. In eleven children, we performed biotype and antibiotic susceptibility study of the bacteria recovered at the diagnosis and during the follow-up. In every child the biotype of the bacteria recovered at the diagnosis and during the follow-up was the same. These data indicate that there is a persistent excretion of salmonella that can last for 24 weeks. Such bacterial elimination may be a dissemination source either to hospital or to home contacts. The use of specific antibiotics was effective for the clinical improvement of the patients during the acute disease, but it didn't avoid the carrier state.
