INCIDENCE AND ENTEROPATHOGENICITY OF AEROMONAS SPP IN CHILDREN SUFFERING FROM ACUTE DIARRHEA IN CHENNAI

A total of 200 stool samples from children below 10 yr suffering from diarrhoea were screened for enteric pathogens with special interest on Aeromonas. Aeromonas spp were isolated from 6.5 per cent of the patie nts, comprising 4 per cent A. hydrophila, 2 per cent A. sobria and 0.5 per cent A. caviae. Among the 13 isolates obtained, 10 isolates produ ced enterotoxin in ligated rabbit ileal loops, and 11 produced cytotox in in HEp 2 cells. Many of the Aeromonas isolates exhibited resistance to commonly used antibiotics such as trimethoprim, sulphdiazine, chlo ramphenicol and tetracycline. None of the stool samples obtained from 52 age matched control children yielded Aeromonas species. Four isolat es of Salmonella typhi, 7 of S. paratyphi A, 6 of Shigella flexneri, 4 of Sh, dysenteriae and 3 isolates of vibrio cholerae (Ogawa) were als o recovered during the study. Among the samples analyzed, one from a 7 yr old female patient, had A. hydrophila with S. paratyphi A. The res ults of this study indicate that drug resistant enteropathogenic Aerom onas is also an important etiological agent of childhood diarrhoea in Chennai.