Pathogenic Microorganisms Associated With Childhood Diarrhea in Low-and-Middle Income Countries: Case Study of Yaoundé – Cameroon

Abstract

Notwithstanding significant advancement in the understanding of pathogenesis and management, diarrheal illnesses remain one of the principal causes of global childhood mortality and morbidity. Infections account for most illnesses, with pathogens employing ingenious mechanisms to establish disease. In 2002, an interdisciplinary program “Populations et al. Espaces à Risques SANitaires” (PERSAN) was set up under the patronage of the Development Research Institute (IRD). Focused on health in Cameroon’s urban environment, the program mainly sought to identify diarrhea risk factors in Yaoundé. So for, a cross-sectional epidemiological study in children aged 6–59 months was carried out using a standardized protocol. The survey was initiated in 2002 and conducted during April to June in the year 2005. 3,034 stool samples were collected from children in twenty neighbourhoods in Yaoundé and examined at the Epidemiology and Public Health Laboratory of the Cameroon Pasteur Institute. About 60% of the patients were aged less than two years and 52% were male. Among the 437 patients with the diarrheal disease, 260 were found to be of infectious etiology, i.e. micro organism was detected in 59.5 % of the cases. Out of which, 10 (03.8%), 96 (36.9%), and 154 (59.2%) were respectively caused by pathogenic viruses, pathogenic bacteria and pathogenic parasites. Higher prevalence was found in overcrowded and under supply spontaneous settlement (78.4%) than in less crowded and formal residential settlement (21.5%). Etiologic data on diarrheal diseases and their spatial distribution are important tools for public health management and control strategic planning.

Clinical Study of Acute Childhood Diarrhoea Caused by Bacterial Enteropathogens

“…The higher incidence of Campylobacter among children do not match with findings shown by Gascón et al,. and Lindblom et al, [22,23] who described low incidence among children but our findings matches to greater extent with work done by NguendoYongsi who had shown higher prevalence of Campylobacter among children <5 years [11].…”

“…The maximum sufferers were between 1 and 3 years of age. A similar pattern of age distribution has been found in earlier done studies [13,11].…”

“…This study covering a two month period was unique in its kind and was one of the very few studies which focused on epidemiological, microbiological and clinical aspects of childhood diarrhoea of bacterial etiology. The number of males suffering with diarrhoea were more in number than female with a ratio of 1:1.202 which is similar to the finding of the studies done over childhood diarrhoea [10][11][12].…”

Etiology of Diarrhea in Children Younger Than 5 Years Attending the Bengo General Hospital in Angola

“…39,40 G. lamblia prevalence in our study was higher compared with studies conducted in Mozambique (2.5%), Cameroon (13.2%), Tanzania (14.0%) and Kenya (16%). 6,22,37,41 All the aforementioned studies applied microscopy for diagnosing G. lamblia. In our study, we identified G. lamblia by both methods (microscopy and the antigen rapid test) and found that more than half of the positive cases were detected only by the antigen rapid test.…”

The Most Common Microbial Causes of Gastroenteritis in Patients With Clinical Manifestations

“…Parasites have been introduced as the third rank cause of diarrhea in developing countries. Among viruses, rotavirus has been known as the cause of diarrhea in more than 50% of children and other viruses play insignificant roles in causing diarrhea (10)(11)(12). In this study, pathogenic agents were detected in 19.6% of the patients.…”