Salmonellosis at rural and urban clinics in Bangladesh: epidemiologic and clinical characteristics

Abstract

The authors studied the frequency of diarrheal illness associated with non-typhi Salmonella at two clinics in Bangladesh for the years 1977-1979. Non-typhi salmonellae were isolated from 0.29% of fecal specimens or rectal swabs in an urban area and 0.26% of similar specimens in a rural area; the frequency of isolations peaked in the summer months. Isolations of Shigella and Vibrio cholerae were much more common than Salmonella. Only two of 50 Salmonella isolates were resistant to more than one antibiotic. None of 13 isolates tested produced an enterotoxin. S. java and S. virchow accounted for 64% of all the isolates. Patients with diarrheal illness associated with isolation of Salmonella frequency had vomiting (88%), watery diarrhea (78%), abdominal pain (61%), and fever (39%), but the clinical features of the illnesses and the socioeconomic backgrounds of the patients could not be distinguished from those of matched controls who were attending the same clinic. The infrequency of Salmonella infection in an area where several other bacterial and viral enteric diseases are hyperendemic requires further investigation.