EPIDEMIOLOGIC AND CLINICAL PROFILES OF ACUTE INVASIVE DIARRHEA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MUCOID EPISODES - A RURAL COMMUNITY-BASED LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

A study was carried out in 3 villages near Calcutta, India, having a p opulation of 5464, between August 1992 and December 1994. A cohort of rural children below 4 years of age was prospectively observed to dete rmine the clinico-epidemiological aspects of mucoid diarrhoea and exam ine propensity to invasiveness. Overall, the incidence of diarrhoea wa s 1.7 episodes/child/year, and that of mucoid and bloody dysentery was 0.8 and 0.2 episodes/child/year, respectively. Children aged 6 - 11 m onths had a higher incidence of mucoid diarrhoea (1.3 episodes/child/y ear) and the peak season occurred in June and July. Multivariate analy sis using logistic regression showed that mucoid diarrhoea and bloody dysentery were closely similar in both clinical and laboratory finding s, including raised faecal leucocyte count (> 10/high power microscope field [hpf]). However, abdominal pain occurred more frequently in blo ody dysentery than in mucoid diarrhoea. Faecal leucocyte count (> 10/h pf) can therefore be used as an indicator for invasiveness of mucoid d iarrhoea at the community level.