Enteric pathogen infection and consequences for child growth in young Aboriginal Australian children: a cross-sectional study
Hanieh, Sarah, Mahanty, Siddhartha, Gurruwiwi, George, Kearns, Therese, Dhurrkay, Roslyn, Gondarra, Veronica, Shield, Jenny, Ryan, Norbert, Azzato, Francesca, Ballard, Susan A., Orlando, Nicole, Nicholson, Sullen, Gibney, Katherine, Brimblecombe, Julie, Page, Wendy, Harrison, Leonard C., and Biggs, Beverley Ann (2021) Enteric pathogen infection and consequences for child growth in young Aboriginal Australian children: a cross-sectional study. BMC Infectious Diseases, 21 (1). 9.
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Abstract
Background: To determine the prevalence of enteric infections in Aboriginal children aged 0–2 years using conventional and molecular diagnostic techniques and to explore associations between the presence of pathogens and child growth.
Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of Aboriginal children (n = 62) residing in a remote community in Northern Australia, conducted from July 24th - October 30th 2017. Stool samples were analysed for organisms by microscopy (directly in the field and following fixation and storage in sodium-acetate formalin), and by qualitative PCR for viruses, bacteria and parasites and serology for Strongyloides-specific IgG. Child growth (height and weight) was measured and z scores calculated according to WHO growth standards.
Results: Nearly 60% of children had evidence for at least one enteric pathogen in their stool (37/62). The highest burden of infection was with adenovirus/sapovirus (22.9%), followed by astrovirus (9.8%) and Cryptosporidium hominis/parvum (8.2%). Non-pathogenic organisms were detected in 22.5% of children. Ten percent of children had diarrhea at the time of stool collection. Infection with two or more pathogens was negatively associated with height for age z scores (− 1.34, 95% CI − 2.61 to − 0.07), as was carriage of the non-pathogen Blastocystis hominis (− 2.05, 95% CI - 3.55 to − 0.54).
Conclusions: Infants and toddlers living in this remote Northern Australian Aboriginal community had a high burden of enteric pathogens and non-pathogens. The association between carriage of pathogens/non-pathogens with impaired child growth in the critical first 1000 days of life has implications for healthy child growth and development and warrants further investigation. These findings have relevance for many other First Nations Communities that face many of the same challenges with regard to poverty, infections, and malnutrition.
| Item ID: | 66865 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1471-2334 |
| Keywords: | Aboriginal, Child growth, Enteric infection, Height for age z scores |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Additional Information: | Published on behalf of the Child Health and Nutrition Study team. |
| Date Deposited: | 03 May 2022 00:19 |
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