Bacterial pathogens in childhood diarrhea in Turkey.

Abstract

To The Editors: Acute bacterial diarrheal disease is a major public health problem in Turkey.1-4 To determine the frequency of bacterial enteropathogens in childhood diarrhea, we obtained 320 stool cultures from 159 male and 161 female children with community-acquired acute gastroenteritis between the ages of 0 and 14 years (mean age, 38 months) from July, 1994, to June, 1996. The cultures were processed in the Clinical Microbiology Department of Gülhane Military Medical Academy, Ankara, Turkey. None of the children had a history of hospital admission or antibiotic use at least 2 months before the study. Fresh stools were examined immediately after the sample was obtained, and those with parasitic diseases were excluded. There were 106 isolates (33.1%) recovered from 320 children (Table 1). In 1 female patient 2 enteropathogens (Aeromonas hydrophilia and Shigella sonnei) were recovered. All Vibrio cholerae isolates were cultured in August and September, 1994, and belonged to biotype El Tor, serotype Ogawa. The 3 Yersinia enterocolitica isolates were 09 serotype.TABLE 1: Results of stool cultures in 105 children with diarrhea Salmonella and Shigella spp. were the most common causes of bacterial diarrheal disease in Turkey, as is the case in many other areas of the world as well.5 The other bacterial pathogens, Y. enterocolitica, V. cholerae, Campylobacter jejuni and Aeromonas spp., are often difficult, expensive and time-consuming to isolate and have been considered uncommon in many international studies. Our results provide evidence that uncommon bacterial pathogens such as Campylobacter spp., Aeromonas spp. and V. cholerae can commonly cause diarrhea. Levent Doğanci, M.D. Orhan Baylan, M.D. Ali Albay, M.D., Ph.D. Hüseyin Gün, M.D. Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology; Department; Gülhane Military Medical Academy and Faculty; Ankara, Turkey