Aeromonas-associated Gastroenteritis

Enterotoxigenic Aeromonas spp. were isolated from 118 (10.2%) children with diarrhoea and 7 (0.6%) of those without diarrhoea in a prospective, year-long study of 1156 children with gastroenteritis and the same number of age and sex matched controls. In Perth, Western Australia, aeromonas-associated diarrhoea is distinctly seasonal with a sharp summer peak. The disease most commonly presents in children under two years of age as watery diarrhoea of short duration and mild fever which require no specific treatment. In more than one-third of patients diarrhoea lasted for over 2 weeks and in almost one-quarter there was a dysentery-like illness. In some patients with aeromonas-associated diarrhoea the clinical features could be regarded as suggestive of ulcerative colitis.