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 Original Articles |
| Clostridium difficile as an Important Etiological Agent in Korean Children with Diarrheal Disease |
| Kyung-Hee Kim, Yang-Ja Cho, Inn Soo Suh |
| Department of Microbiology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea |
Vol.18 Num.1 (p31~34)
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Although recent reports from western countries suggest that Clostridium difficile has been implicated as an important agent in diarrheal disease of children, the frequency with which C. difficile occurs in Korean children with diarrhea has not been established. We, therefore, conducted a 12 month evaluation of C. difficile in 214 diarrheal children less than 2 years old and 52 age-matched controls in Korea. Toxigenic C. difficile plus free fecal C. difficile toxin or free fecal C. difficile toxin only was detected in stools of 33(15.4%) children hopsitalized due to diarrhea and in stools of 2(3.8%) of 52 asymptomatic controls (P<0.05). Colonization of infants with C. difficile seems to occur during weaning probably from other carriers, e.g., food or their surroundings. The babies in turn may be an exogenous source of C. difficile for adults who are receiving antibiotics. These results suggest the importance of searching for C. difficile toxin in children who develop diarrhea in Korea.
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