VILLENA, Juan Paolo David S.

December
10, 2010
2008-29009 Prof. S.
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HW : Review of Related Literature Biology
199

Causative Agents of Acute Gastroenteritis and Their Various Effects

Several studies have been made that tackled the different symptoms and causative agents
of acute gastroenteritis. These studies were made mostly by surveying a population satisfying the
conditions for the positive detection of acute gastroenteritis and by reviewing medical histories of
subjects that have been reported to have such disease whose ages vary from infancy to
adolescent and their relationship with that of the results for adults. According to a study made by
Chan, Ng, Lyon, Cheung, Cheng and Rainer (2003), Vibrio parahaemolyticus was seen as the most
common pathogen causing acute bacterial gastroenteritis in a university affiliated hospital in
Hong Kong. But Fhogartaigh and Edgeworth (2007) explains in their study that the pathogen that
causes acute gastroenteritis varies with population factors and geographical region. Symptoms
that may arise may also vary depending on the bacterial strain that is causing gastroenteritis.
Most common symptoms seen were low-grade fever (Hara, Mukoyama, Tsuruhara, Ashiwara,
Saito, Tagaya, n.d.) vomiting (Fhogartaigh, Edgeworth, 2007) diarrhoea that last for 2.2 days,
abdominal pain for 1.8 days and defecating 9.3 unformed stools per day but Campylobacter
positive patients may experience prolonged abdominal pain and dehydration (Chan, Ng, Lyon,
Cheung, Cheng, Rainer, 2010) and may be related to subsequent irritable bowel syndrome
(Thabane, Simunovic, Akhtar-Danesh, Garg, Clark, Salvadori, Marshall, 2010). Salmonella
gastroenteritis poses a graver threat as Lee, Puthucheary and Boey (1998), found out in their
study that 67% of their subjects were infants and a few had invasive complications such as
bacteraemia and meningitis. Viral strains may also cause acute gastroenteritis as elucidated in
Hara, Mukoyama, Tsuruhara, Ashiwara, Saito and Tagaya’s work (n.d.).