Food and water hygiene and diarrhoea in young Gambian children: a limited case control study

During the annual rainy season epidemic of diarrhoea in The Gambia, two groups of urban children were identified, one of which remained completely free of diarrhoea and another in which diarrhoeal prevalence exceed 30% over a period of three months. Microbiological studies on the food and water consumed by these children during one day showed widely varying degrees of contamination in both groups. No difference was observed in levels of contamination, faecal or otherwise, between the two groups. The real problem seemed to lie in accounting for the freedom from diarrhoea of some children rather than explaining possible causes of morbidity in others.