Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Travelers' Diarrhea among American Peace Corps Volunteers in Rural Thailand

1981; Oxford University Press; Volume: 143; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/infdis/143.6.767

1537-6613

P Echeverria, Neil R. Blacklow, L. P. Sanford, George Cukor,

Hepatitis Viruses Studies and Epidemiology

Diarrheal disease was studied prospectively in 35 Peace Corps volunteers during their first five weeks in rural Thailand. Twenty (57%) developed the syndrome of travelers' diarrhea. Recognized bacterial enteric pathogens were isolated from stools during 47% of 39 episodes of travelers' diarrhea. Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli was isolated during 26% and Shigella during 13% of the episodes. Of the 20 volunteers, 50% had bacteriologic and/or serologic evidence of infection with enterotoxigenic E. coli. Sixtyone percent of isolates of enterotoxigenic E. coli and 92% of isolates of Shigella were resistant to doxycycline. Other enteric pathogens, including Campylobacter jejuni/coli, Yersinia enterocolitica, Salmonella, rotavirus, Norwalk agent, and Entamoeba histolytica, were associated with episodes of travelers' diarrhea. Aeromonas hydrophila, isolated from 31% of 39 episodes of travelers' diarrhea, was of unkown pathogenic importance. Thus, episodes of travelers' diarrhea in Thailand were associated with a variety of organisms, among which antibiotic-resistant bacterial enteropathogens were common.