Gram negative pharyngeal bacterial flora in malnourished children with shigellosis

Abstract

It is well recognised that malnourished children are susceptible to frequent chronic and severe infections. Host factors like malnutrition and severe illness are i important determinants of gram negative pharyngeal carriage. Tiie high rate of such carriage in malnourished children may be, in part, responsible for their increased susceptibility to gram negative ! infection of the throat. During the study of the flora of the intestinal tract in malnourished children with shigellosis we , attempted to study their throat flora. It has been found that the prevalence of gram negative bacilli among the pharyngeal bacterial flora was low in physiologically normal subjects but rose markedly in patients with diarrhoea or dysentery