Epidemiology and microbiology of diarrhoea in young Aboriginal children in the Kimberley region of Western Australia

Abstract

Infectious diarrhoea is common in young Australian Aborigines [1–3] and is one of the main causes for their unsatisfactory health standards with consequent widespread failure to thrive and undernutrition [4–5]. Most published reports relate to patients in hospital or to hospital admission statistics and give little indication of the extent or severity of diarrhoeal disease in children in Aboriginal communities.The present investigation involved more than 100 Aboriginal children up to 5 years of age living in remote communities in the tropical north of Western Australia who were studied prospectively over a 12–month period.