Enteric Disease in Young Australian Aborigines

Summary: The clinical features are presented of two hundred and fifty‐one (251) Aboriginal infants and children with diarrhoea treated over a recent two‐year period. Clinical evidence of malnutrition was present in 40 per cent of these patients and 37 per cent were anaemic. Sugar intolerance complicated the clinical course in one‐quarter of the cases. More than one‐half of the patients had enteric pathogens in their stools; they included a wide variety of intestinal parasites and enteropathogenic bacteria. The clinical pattern of diarrhoeal illnesses seen so commonly in young Aborigines resembles that seen in under‐privileged communities in developing countries. Improvement of this situation will depend on elevation of the presently unsatisfactory standards of living, nutrition, education and hygiene in the Aboriginal population.