Summer diarrhoea in African infants and children.

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Of 70 black South African infants and children with acute summer diarrhoea, 30 (43%) were infected with enteropathogenic serogroups of Escherichia coli (EPEC), 13 (19%) with enterotoxigenic Gram-negative bacilli, 12 (17%) with Salmonella sp., 6 (9%) with Shigella sp., and 3 (4%) with rotaviruses. 13 (19%) patients were infected simultaneously with more than one enteropathogen, and no pathogen was detected in 22 (31%). In addition, 6 (15%) of 41 unselected patients were excreting Campylobacter fetus. Of 30 age-matched controls drawn from the same population, 5 (17%) were infected with EPEC serotypes, and 1 each with Salmonella sp. and rotavirus. This study stresses the polymicrobial nature of paediatric diarrhoea in a developing community and shows the continued importance of EPEC in this setting.