Epidemiology of Acute Bloody Diarrhea in Children under 18 Years in a Public Hospital of Buenos Aires City

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Diarrhea is one of the most common childhood diseases, and acute bloody diarrhea (ABD) one of the individual notification events of highest incidence in the Catchment Area under study. OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of DAS cases in a public hospital of Buenos Aires city. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed, considering the epidemiological characteristics of ABD in young people aged under 18 notified by Hospital Piñero and its centers of primary care during 2017. Sources of information were the National System of Health Surveillance and the database of the hospital laboratory, including Whonet system. RESULTS: A total of 119 cases were recorded, and the median age was 3 years. Stool cultures were taken from 53 patients (45%), 22 of them were positive for enteropathogens. The fresh examination with inflammatory characteristics was not associated with a positive stool culture (p=0.4). The isolated germs were Shigella flexneri (n=15), Shigella sonnei (n=3), Salmonella Typhimurium (n=1), Salmonella enterica sp. not Typhi (n=1) and Campylobacter coli (n=2). From the isolated bacteria, 40% were resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. There was not resistance to furazolidone or extended-spectrum beta-lactamase carrying strains. CONCLUSIONS: The number of stool cultures taken was low, furazolidone may be a therapeutic option in this population, and there was not any further development of hemolytic uremic syndrome