Clinical features of gastrointestinal salmonellosis in children in Bangkok, Thailand.

This retrospective descriptive study was conducted at Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health (QSNICH), Bangkok, Thailand to describe the clinical features of gastrointestinal salmonellosis in children. The medical records of 134 patients admitted to QSNICH in 2009 who had a positive stool culture for Salmonella spp were reviewed. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, treatment, culture and antimicrobial sensitivity data were collected and analyzed. The mean age of the patients was 22.9 months (range 0.5 to 158 months); 76.9% were < 2 years old. The male to female ratio was 1.5:1. Salmonella B was most commonly found serogroup (47%). The common clinical manifestations included diarrhea (99.3%), fever (93.3%), dehydration (64.9%) and nausea/vomiting (48.5%). Most of the Salmonella isolates were sensitive to a fluoroquinolone and many were sensitive to Cotrimoxazole, but few were sensitive to ampicillin. There were no significant differences in the clinical manifestations and drug sensitivities of the different Salmonella serogroups, except convulsions were more common in Salmonella E infected patients (p = 0.04) and more Salmonella C isolates were sensitive to ampicillin (p = 0.04). There was no significant correlation between clinical course and antimicrobial treatment, except the duration of diarrhea was significantly longer in patients who received antimicrobial treatment (mean 6.1, SD 4.7 days vs mean 4.2, SD 2.1 days) (p = 0.03). Three patients had Salmonella bacteremia. Three patients died but not directly due to Salmonella infection.