Pesquisa de bactérias e vírus intestinais em uma população infantil do noroeste paulista

Abstract

Introduction Childhood acute infectious diarrhea is one of the biggest health problems faced by developing countries and its incidence has been increased in children who attend daycare. Objective To evaluate the possible relation between bacterial and viral enteropathogens with diarrhea in a children population of a public daycare in São José do Rio Preto city São Paulo state. Material and methods The group of Microorganisms Investigation Center (CIM) of the Medicine College of São José do Rio Preto (FAMERP) collected and processed 100 fecal samples of 50 healthy children (control group) and other 50 children who presented fecal material with compatible aspect to diarrheic clinic. Stool samples were transported in Cary Blair transport media for bacterial analysis. All specimens were examined on the day of collection according to standard bacteriologic procedures. Briefly, suggestive bacterial colonies were isolated from McConkey, Salmonella Shigella, brilliant green (after enrichment in tetrathionate broth), and Columbia agar. Isolates identified by biochemical tests were serotyped by standard techniques (EPM-Milli and Oxidase stripes plus commercially available antisera; PROBAC, Brazil). For a viral analysis, an aliquot of the obtained fecal material was frozen under -70 degrees Celsius and, afterwards, conducted to the Virology Section of the Institute Evandro Chagas, Ananindeua, Pará state. The identification of the astrovirus and calicivirus was done by RT-PCR (Polymerase chain reaction, through reverse transcriptase). Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) was carried out in Tris glycine buffer and rotavirus genome profile was defined following electrophoresis of extracted dsRNA through vertical 5% acrylamide bisacrylamide gels. Results and discussion There was no difference concerning the gender between the two groups, with a slight higher representation of female 52 (52,0%). The age group ranged from 6 months to 7 years old (an average of 1,6 years). The most frequent bacteria in the population was 38 strains of E.coli (38%), distributed like this: EPEC (12%), EIEC (3%), Pseudomonas spp. (2%) and E.coli O157 (1%). Fourteen children presented mixed colonization of Enterobacter and E.coli (14,1%). The circulating of enteric viruses in the children population are the Norovirus (2%) and Astrovirus (1%). The presence of Norovirus and Astrovirus is traditionally associated with the urban area inhabitants. The food intake out of the daycare and home indicated the presence of enteropathogens. The bacterial and viral agents detected are not associated with the diarrhea occurrence in the studied population. Conclusion: The results obtained in this study demonstrated that the children who attend daycare are asymptomatic carriers of potential pathologic agents, this fact deserves further investigation in this area, as well as in other country areas. This study will be useful for creating effective strategies of prevention, control and treatment, in order to improve the life condition of the group in this work.