Diarrheagenic pathogens in Polymicrobial infections

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Brianna Lindsay, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB); T. Ramamurthy, National Institutes of Cholera and Enteric Diseases; Sourav Sen Gupta, Emory University; Yoshifumi Takeda, National Institutes of Cholera and Enteric Diseases; Krishnan Rajendran, National Institutes of Cholera and Enteric Diseases; G. Balakrish Nair, National Institutes of Cholera and Enteric Diseases; O. Colin Stine, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB)
• Language: English
• Date: 2011-04-01
• Publisher: U.S. Government
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: This is a publication of the U.S. Government. This publication is in the public domain and is therefore without copyright. All text from this work may be reprinted freely. Use of these materials should be properly cited.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1704100939
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 606
• End Page: 611
• Grant/Funding Information: Funding for this study was provided by The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; the Indian Council Medical Research; and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
• Keywords: rotavirus; research; bacteria; coinfection; viruses; Vibrio cholerae; Vibrio infections; parasites; Diarrhea
• Research Categories: Biology, Virology; Health Sciences, Public Health; Biology, Parasitology

Abstract

During systematic active surveillance of the causes of diarrhea in patients admitted to the Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General Hospital in Kolkata, India, we looked for 26 known gastrointestinal pathogens in fecal samples from 2,748 patients. Samples from about one-third (29%) of the patients contained multiple pathogens. Polymicrobial infections frequently contained Vibrio cholerae O1 and rotavirus. When these agents were present, some coinfecting agents were found signifi cantly less often (p = 10-5 to 10-33), some were detected signifi cantly more often (p = 10-5 to 10-26), and others were detected equally as often as when V. cholerae O1 or rotavirus was absent. When data were stratifi ed by patient age and season, many nonrandom associations remained statistically signifi cant. The causes and effects of these nonrandom associations remain unknown.