Bryon Skinner / CDC
Each year, 800,000 children under 5 living in the developing world die from a disease that is usually considered a mere annoyance in the West diarrhea. But until now, there has been very little reliable data on the microbes behind all this death and their specific effects on the health of children worldwide. To fill these gaps, a team of scientists spent three years studying diarrheal diseases at seven sites in South Asia and Africa. The results were sobering: children with moderate to severe diarrhea (MSD) were 8.5 times more likely to die within 60 days children do not suffer from TMS, the researchers report today The Lancet . Moreover, children who have survived their battle with MSD showed signs of stunting that could affect their future development. Microbially, the team was surprised to discover that the majority of children cases of MDS were caused by only four pathogens: Rotavirus (photo), the parasite Cryptosporidium , a strain of the Escherichia coli bacteria called ST-ETEC, and bacteria Shigella. The fact that the rotavirus top of the list is actually good news, because efforts are already underway to vaccinate children at risk against the virus. But the appearance of Cryptosporidium is more disturbing, scientists had no idea of the parasite, which is usually observed in HIV patients for HIV was the cause of many cases of MSD childhood. They hope that this new study will be accelerated if necessary research on how to protect themselves against this bug understudied.
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