Infantile gastroenteritis in Western Samoa.

Gastroenteritis has been identified traditionally as a major health problem in Western Samoa. In order to establish the extent of the problem, and to identify the viral and bacterial pathogens involved, stool specimens were collected from all children less than 2 years of age admitted to Apia Hospital, Western Samoa, over a 2 year period. Rotavirus was recovered from 5.5% of all admissions (20.5% of those labelled gastroenteritis) and bacterial pathogens were isolated from 2.1% of all admissions (0.9% of all those labelled gastroenteritis). Thus in Apia, as elsewhere, rotavirus is the most commonly identified enteric pathogen associated with infantile diarrhoea.