Within a 5-year period, 64 patients were hospitalized at the Chang Gun
g Memorial Hospital of Keelung (Taiwan) with bacteremia due to non-typ
hi Salmonella. Fifteen were <24 weeks of age, 17 were between 6 months
and 5 years of age, and 32 were > 18 years of age. An analysis of the
se patients revealed several significant differences between pediatric
and adult patients. For instance, 87.5% of the adults but none of the
children were debilitated because of severe underlying disease. Morta
lity was high (40.6%) among adults, but no deaths were observed among
the children. Diarrhea occurred significantly more frequently among ch
ildren (68.7%) than among adults (15.6%), while the contrary was obser
ved in regard to chills, which occurred in 31% of adults and none of t
he children. It is concluded that bacteremia due to non-typhi Salmonel
la presents with different clinical features in adults than it does in
children; furthermore, in adults the disease can be considered life-t
hreatening, but in children it is associated with a favorable prognosi
s.