Gastroenteritis etiology in a university hospital during 1983

This paper reports the results of a microbiological study of the patients seen with diarrhea at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Barcelona) through 1983. Two thousand seven hundred sixty three specimens were studied in search of an enteropathogenic bacteria, 1341 were submitted to parasitologic study and 684 to rotavirus search. Two hundred fifty one Salmonella spp., 233 C. jejuni, 152 Shigella spp., 47 Yersinia spp., 96 G. intestinalis and 181 positive Rotavirus specimens were detected. Data about efficacy of the methods employed, seasonal and age incidence and sensitivity to the antimicrobials of the bacterial isolated strains are reported.