Aeromonas-Associated Diarrhea in Children Under 5 Years: The GEMS Experience

We report the clinical findings, epidemiology, and risk factors for moderate-to-severe diarrhea (MSD) associated with Aeromonas species in children 0-59 months of age, from the Global Enteric Multicenter Study, conducted at three sites in south Asia and four sites in sub-Saharan Africa. Children with MSD were enrolled along with controls matched for age, gender, and neighborhood. Pooled, age-stratified conditional logistic regression models were applied to evaluate the association of Aeromonas infection controlling for coinfecting pathogens and sociodemographic variables. A pooled, age-stratified, multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to identify risk factors associated with Aeromonas positivity in MSD cases. A total of 12,110 cases and 17,291 matched controls were enrolled over a period of 48 months. Aeromonas was identified as a…