Table 6.
Characteristics of acute gastrointestinal illness in three sentinel sites in Cuba
| Characteristics | Overall | Cienfuegos | Centro Habana | Santiago de Cuba | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry | Rainy | Dry | Rainy | Dry | Rainy | Dry | Rainy | |
| (n=150) | (n=530) | (n=21) | (n=96) | (n=76) | (n=135) | (n=53) | (n=299) | |
| Type of diarrhoea (%) | ||||||||
| Watery | 76.0 | 77.4 | 85.7 | 80.2 | 76.3 | 74.8 | 71.7 | 77.6 |
| Mucoid | 9.3 | 10.8 | 4.8 | 14.6 | 10.5 | 9.6 | 9.4 | 10.0 |
| Bloody | 2.7 | 2.6 | 4.8 | 2.1 | 1.3 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 2.7 |
| Watery and mucoid | 3.3 | 4.9 | 0 | 1.0 | 5.3 | 8.2 | 1.9 | 4.7 |
| Watery, mu coid, and bloody | 0 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.3 |
| Watery and bloody | 0 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.5 | 0 | 1.0 |
| Mucoid and bloody | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.7 | 0 | 0.3 |
| No response | 8.7 | 2.8 | 4.8 | 2.1 | 6.6 | 2.2 | 13.2 | 3.3 |
| Additional symptoms∗ (%) | ||||||||
| Abdominal pain | 40.7 | 56.1 | 38.1 | 78.7 | 42.1 | 51.5 | 39.6 | 49.2 |
| Fever | 18.7 | 21.5 | 19.0 | 10.6 | 15.8 | 20.4 | 22.6 | 24.7 |
| Chills | 32.0 | 21.4 | 28.6 | 26.6 | 44.7 | 27.3 | 15.1 | 16.4 |
| Nausea | 13.3 | 23.3 | 14.3 | 17.0 | 10.5 | 17.4 | 17.0 | 27.1 |
| Vomiting | 12.7 | 18.6 | 28.6 | 18.1 | 10.5 | 18.9 | 9.4 | 18.1 |
| Respiratory problems | 0.7 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 2.1 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 3.0 |
| Duration (days) of illness | ||||||||
| Range | 1-6 | 1-9 | 1-6 | 1-9 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-4 |
| Median | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Mean (SD) | 1.3 (0.8) | 1.4 (0.9) | 2.2 (1.5)†,‡ | 2.6 (1.8)†‡ | 1.2 (0.5) | 1.1 (0.3) | 1.1 (0.4) | 1.2 (0.5) |
| % of cases with 1-day illness | 81.1 | 81.7 | 35.0 | 37.3 | 86.4 | 92.6 | 92.4 | 88.0 |
| Number of episodes per 24 hours | ||||||||
| Maximum | 12 | 15 | 8 | 15 | 9 | 15 | 12 | 9 |
| Median | 4 | 4 | 3.5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Mean (SD) | 4.4 (1.7) | 4.7 (1.9) | 4.7 (1.7) | 4.6 (2.4)§ | 4.5 (1.6)§ | 5.0 (2.1)§ | 4.2 (1.9) | 4.5 (1.7) |
| Household members ill with diarrhoea in previous 7 days (%) | ||||||||
| Yes | 9.3 | 29.4 | 19.0 | 26.0 | 3.9 | 30.4 | 13.2 | 30.1 |
| No | 68.7 | 63.6 | 76.2 | 67.7 | 55.3 | 57.8 | 84.9 | 64.9 |
| Unknown | 22.0 | 7.0 | 4.8 | 6.3 | 40.8 | 11.8 | 1.9 | 5.0 |
∗Figures might add up to >100% because cases might have experienced more than one additional symptom
†Within a season, the duration of illness was significantly different from Centro Habana (p<0.0001)
‡Within a season, the duration of illness was significantly different from Santiago de Cuba (p<0.0001)
§Within a season, the mean number of episodes per 24 hours was significantly different from Santiago de Cuba (p<0.01)
SD=Standard deviation