Etiology of acute diarrhoea among children in developing countries: a multicentre study in five countries.

An enteric pathogen was detected in 66% of the cases and in 30% of the controls. [...] Introduction advances, the most important of which were the Knowledge of the etiology of acute diarrhoea is rele- discovery of rotaviruses and Campylobacter jejuni, vant for planning diarrhoeal disease control stra- the discovery and development of diagnostic tests for tegies, especially vaccine development. [...] More than Table 1: Distribution of cases of diarrhoea In the five one enteric pathogen was found in at least 20% of study sites diarrhoea episodes in Mexico City, Shanghai, and Vellore, but in only about 5% in Islamabad and No. [...] The prevalence of EPEC was relatively high in controls, and, with the exception of Islama- Figures in parentheses are percentages of the total number of bad, nearly equal to that in cases. [...] The effect of age on the prevalence of specific proportion of diarrhoeic children aged 6-11 months pathogens was evaluated by determining the rate of who were positive for rotavirus; and by determining isolation of a specific pathogen (or no pathogen) the distribution by age group of all isolates of spe- from children within defined age groups, e.g., the cific agents, e.g., the proportion of all r