| Abstract: | Acute intestinal infections were clinically and epidemiologically studied in children residing in the towns with different quantitative and qualitative composition of ambient air pollutants and in the districts of a town, which differ in the level of technogenic ambient air pollution. Six hundred and eighty patients with different types of shigellosis and 421 patients with salmonellosis admitted to the infection hospitals of the towns of Angarsk (an intensively polluted locality) and Irkutsk (a better ecological area) were examined in 1995 to 2000. The technogenic ambient air pollution was found to exert a noticeable impact on the incidence with S. sonnei dysentery. In poor environmental areas, all the infections under study are characterized by a great burden, duration, more severe clinical symptoms, and poor laboratory changes in the presence of a decreased responsiveness. |
