Abstract
Enteric pathogens, which are frequently food- and waterborne transmitted, are highly abundant in Indigenous people living in remote rural areas of Colombia. As the frequency of gastroenteritis in the tropics shows seasonal differences, we analyzed variations of pathogen patterns in the stool samples of a Colombian Indigenous tribe called Wiwa during the dry (n = 105) and the rainy (n = 227) season, applying real-time PCR from stool samples and statistical analysis based on a multi-variable model. Focusing on bacterial pathogens, increased detection rates could be confirmed for enteropathogenic, enterotoxigenic and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli with a tendency for an increase in Campylobacter jejuni detections during the rainy season, while there was no seasonal effect on the carriage of Tropheryma whipplei. Salmonellae were recorded during the rainy season only. A differentiated pattern was seen for the assessed parasites. Entamoeba histolytica, Necator americanus and Trichuris trichiura were increasingly detected during the rainy season, but not Ascaris lumbricoides, Giardia duodenalis, Hymenolepis nana, Strongyloides stercoralis, and Taenia solium, respectively. Increased detection rates during the dry season were not recorded. Negative associations were found for Campylobacter jejuni and Giardia duodenalis with age and for Tropheryma whipplei with the body mass index, respectively. Positive associations of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and Taenia solium detections were observed with age. In conclusion, facilitating effects of the tropical rainy season were more pronounced on bacterial enteric pathogens compared to enteropathogenic parasites.
Highlights
Seasonal effects on the epidemiology of infectious diseases in general and gastroenteric infections in particular are well-known phenomena
During the rainy season of 2014, 105 stool samples from the assessed Indigenous study population were included in the multi-variable model-based assessment, while 227 samples could be included from the dry season in 2018
For Campylobacter jejuni, at least a non-significant tendency for more detections during the rainy season could be shown, while there was no effect on Tropheryma whipplei
Summary
Seasonal effects on the epidemiology of infectious diseases in general and gastroenteric infections in particular are well-known phenomena. Available information is still scarce and partly inhomogeneous. In an assessment with deployed European soldiers in the tropical South of Mali, high gastroenteritis rates were observed in the moist, hot climate of the rainy season [1]. U.S American armed forces had a similar experience with seasonality of tropical gastroenteritis at a military base on the Philippines [2,3]. In the Colombian Indigenous Wiwa population, an increased rate of Cyclospora cayetanensis infections was observed in the rainy season as well [4], confirming an inconsistently reported seasonality of cyclosporiasis [5–7].
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