Pediatric Salmonella enterocolitis in a teaching hospital in Taitung: A four-year analysis

In order to understand the childhood Salmonella enterocolitis in Taitung, we retrospectively collected the patients with the diagnosis of acute enterocolitis who were admitted to the pediatric wards of Taitung branch of Mackay Memorial Hospital from January 1, 1995 to December 31, 1998. Salmonella enterocolitis accounted for 16.8% of the total cases of acute enterocolitis. The mean age of the patients was 14.6 +/- 14.1 months old. Seventy-nine patients were male and 78 patients were female. Eighty-two patients lived in the urban area and 75 patients lived in the suburbs. The mean duration from onset of illness to admission was 2.6 +/- 1.9 days. The mean duration of hospitalization was 6.6 +/- 4.8 days. The peak incidence was in August and September. The most common clinical manifestations were fever (74.5%) and blood stool (46.5%). In 157 patients, Salmonella serogroup B was isolated from stool in 115 patients. The rate of bacteremia was 4.5%. Serogroup D accounted for 28.6% of the bacteremia. Two patients developed meningitis and one patient had osteomyelitis. Of 88 patients examined for rotavirus, 12 had positive results. There was neither bowel perforation nor mortality recorded in our study.