Epidemiology and aetiology of acute childhood diarrhoea in Burma: a rural community survey

Identical epidemiological and microbiological surveys were carried out in a rural community at Intakaw, Burma, in 2 months, one in the hot wet and the other in the cool dry season. The incidence of diarrhoea was highest in children under 3 years old and in the hot wet month when enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli was the predominant pathogen. Rotavirus was the commonest pathogen in the cool dry month but was absent in the hot wet month. Shigellae, salmonellae and campylobacter were isolated in both seasons, but were not significantly commoner in patients than in controls. Vibrios and Yersinia enterocolitica were sought but not found in any specimen.