Association of Providencia alcalifaciens with Diarrhea in Children

It has been demonstrated in previous studies that Providencia alcalifaciens can produce diarrhea by an invasive mechanism. In the present study, P. alcalifaciens was isolated from the stool specimens of 17 of 814 diarrheal children younger than 5 years of age (2.1%) and from those of 4 of 814 matched controls (0.49%) (P = 0.004), indicating that the organism is significantly associated with diarrhea. However, 71% of P. alcalifaciens-positive diarrheal children had simultaneous infections with other recognized enteric pathogens.

已有既往研究证实，产碱普罗威登斯菌（Providencia alcalifaciens）可通过侵袭性致病机制引发腹泻。本研究中，研究人员从814名5岁以下腹泻患儿的粪便标本中分离出17株产碱普罗威登斯菌（占比2.1%），同时从814名匹配对照人群的粪便标本中分离出4株（占比0.49%）（P=0.004），表明该菌与腹泻存在显著统计学关联。然而，在产碱普罗威登斯菌检测阳性的腹泻患儿中，有71%同时合并其他公认肠道致病菌感染。