ENTERIC BACTERIAL PATHOGENS IN STOOLS OF RESIDENTS OF URBAN AND RURALREGIONS IN NIGERIA - A COMPARISON OF PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT DIARRHEA AND CONTROLS WITHOUT DIARRHEA

A total of 2,400 stool samples comprising 1,200 from patients with dia rrhoea (600 each from urban and rural area) and 1,200 similarly divide d controls were obtained from school children and clinic attendants of government and private clinics around three designated study centres of Edo, Lagos and Cross River states, Nigeria. These were screened for the prevalence of bacteria that could cause diarrhoea. Diarrhoea case s in urban areas had a high prevalence rate for Campylobacter spp. (28 %), followed by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (22%), Salmonella sp p. (17%), Shigella spp. (14%), Aeromonas spp. (5%), and Yersinia enter ocolitica (4%), whereas in rural areas E. coli was the most frequently encountered pathogen (18%), followed by Salmonella spp. (16%), Aeromo nas spp. (15%), Shigella spp. (9%), Campylobacter spp. (8%), and Plesi omonas shigelloides (8%). A similar distribution but with lower rates was noted for controls in both urban and rural areas, however, no P. s higelloides was isolated. Results highlight a possible difference betw een the prevalence of enteric bacteria in rural and urban areas and re veals the strong association of Aeromonas and Plesiomonas species with cases of diarrhoea in Nigeria.