Intestinal amoebiasis in children and its effect on nutritional status.

Objective: To determine the frequency and clinical presentation of amoebic diarrhea in children and its effect on the nutritional status of the affected children. Study Design: Descriptive. Results: The stool samples of 3870 patients with diarrhea were examined under microscope. Three hundred and twenty eight (8.47%) of these samples were positive for E.H. The difference between the number of patients presenting with acute watery diarrhea n=157, 47.86% and with dysentery n=171, 52.13% was found to be statistically non-significant (p=0.364). Two hundred and seventy seven (84.45%) patients had tenesmus, while abdominal pain was present in 287 (87.5%). Fever and malnutrition were present in 169 (51.52%) patients each. Malnutrition was significantly most frequent in 1-5 years of age groups (n=98, 57.98%, p=0.026). The nutritional evaluation of the 272 under-5 children with amoebic diarrhea showed a significantly normal status in 123 (45.55%, p-value <0.001). All the signs and symptoms followed a similar trend with 1-5 years age group being the most affected group. However, the frequency of blood in stools increased in direct proportion to the increasing age. Conclusion: Although dysentery was the more common presenting complaint, almost half of the patients presented with watery diarrhea. Most of the patients with dysentery were under the age of 5 years. Fever was present in a high number of patients. The age group most affected by amoebiasis and malnutrition was 1-5 years.