Nutritional status and diarrhoeal pathogen in hospitalized children in Bangladesh

Abstract

We studied the relationship between nutritional status and infection due to specific enteropathogens in young children with diarrhoea. Overall, 26% of the children were severely underweight, 27% were severely wasted and 19% were severely stunted. Children with Shigellae and V. cholerae O1 were significantly more severely underweight, wasted and stunted than those with rotavirus diarrhoea (p < 0.0001). Our results indicate that an effective nutrition programme for young children might have greater impact on diarrhoeal illness caused by Shigella and V. cholerae than by rotavirus diarrhoea