Infectious Gastroenteritis: Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention

Dauphin Dighitoghi Moro¹* and Moses Oluwole David²

Received:November 01, 2019;   Published:November 07, 2019

DOI: 10.32474/CTGH.2018.02.000147

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Abstract

Gastroenteritis is an infectious disease of high morbidity and mortality thus of serious public health significance. The burden of this infection is quite critical in the developing countries due to lack of potable water, malnutrition and poor sanitation. Etiology of infectious gastroenteritis consists bacteria which include Escherichia coli, Salmonella species, Shigella species, Aeromonas species, Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter species and Yersinia enterocolitica while the viral etiologies include Rotavirus, Norovirus, Adenovirus, Coronavirus, Calicivirus, Astrovirus and Enteroviruses. The clinical symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, flatulence, abdominal pain indigestion, cramps, indigestion, belching and gagging. Laboratory diagnosis of bacteria involved in gastroenteritis involves routine stool culture on selective and differential media, culture of rectal swabs especially for Shigella and Salmonella while noncultural methods. Anaerobic culture is carried out to isolate C. difficile in addition to three special techniques which include glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) enzyme immunoassays (EIAs), toxin A/B enzyme immunoassays and toxin A/B gene nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs). Syndromic panels have been successfully used to diagnose viral gastroenteritis. Antibiotic susceptibility testing is important for treatment of bacterial gastroenteritis while viral gastroenteritis should be carefully managed. Infectious gastroenteritis is self-limiting in some instances but can be treated with several antibiotics some of which include penicillin cephalosporins, penem, nitroimidazole, glycopeptides, sulfa combinations, antifolate and monolactam antibiotics. Improved personal hygiene and consumption well cooked foods and avoiding expired canned foods among other healthy food handling methods will minimize the incidence of infectious gastroenteritis.

Keywords:Gastroenteritis; Diarrhea; Vomiting; Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli; Syndromic panels

Summary| Introduction| Causes| Clinical Diagnosis| Laboratory Diagnosis| Treatment| Conclusion| References|