Enteropathogenic bacteria associated with acute diarrheal disease in children

Abstract

Introduction: bacteria cause between 10% and 20% of infectious diarrheas, many do not self-limit and need specific surveillance and specific treatment against the possibility of a potentially epidemic or virulent agent to avoid dissemination and complications. Objective: to characterize isolation of enteropathogenic bacteria in children with acute diarrheal disease in the Provincial of Villa Clara in a period of ten years. Method: a retrospective descriptive study was performed. The population consisted of 20,076 faecal samples for coproculture collected from children admitted with acute diarrheal disease at “José Luis Miranda” Infant Hospital from 2006 to 2015. The sample consisted of 1 657 isolated enteropathogenic bacteria. Results: the isolated enteropathogenic bacteria were: Shigella spp. (34,22%), Salmonella spp. (23,72%), Vibrio cholerae (14,24%), enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (10,92%), Aeromonas spp. (8,39%), Yersinia enterocolitica (5,31%), Escherichia coli enterotoxigenic (2,60%) and Plesiomonas spp. (0,60%). Conclusions: the isolates of Shigella spp. and Salmonella spp. predominated that showed fluctuations in the studied period with marked decreases when the cholera epidemic occurred. All intestinal pathogenic bacteria showed seasonality that is repeated year after year on a regular basis with a maximum epidemic limit in plateau between the II and III trimesters to Shigella spp., II quarter for Salmonella spp., enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli and Aeromonas spp. and I quarter for Yersinia enterocolitica.

Keywords

• enteropatógenos
• disentería