Table 4.
The clinical presentation of Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei infections.
| S. flexneri | S. sonnei | p valuea | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pateints | n = 123 | n = 147 | |
| Age (months)d | 25 (12 - 42) | 23 (14 - 36) | 0.105 |
| Weight (kg) | 11 (8.5 - 14) | 10 (9.9 -13) | 0.558 |
| Male sex (%) | 55 (44.7) | 83 (56.5) | 0.055 |
| Patient history | |||
| Days | 2 (2 - 3) | 1 (1 - 2) | < 0.001 |
| Fever (%) | 117 (95) | 141 (96) | 0.761 |
| Abdominal pain (%) | 64 (52) | 84 (57.1) | 0.48 |
| Vomitting (%) | 60 (48.8) | 74 (50.3) | 0.78 |
| Watery diarrhea (%) | 78 (63.4) | 86 (58.5) | 0.41 |
| Bloody/mucoid diarrhea (%) | 97 (78.9) | 117 (80) | 0.88 |
| Diarrhea episodes per day | 10 (5 - 10) | 8 (5 - 10) | 0.051 |
| Convulsions (%) | 9 (7.3) | 21 (14.3) | 0.07 |
| Known pretreatment (%) | 7 (5.7) | 7 (4.8) | 0.585 |
| Clinical details | |||
| White cell count (× 103/mm3) | 10 (8 - 13.6) | 12 (10.5 - 15.5) | 0.029 |
| Red cells in stoolb | 1 | 1 | 0.056 |
| White cells in stoolb | 3 | 3 | 0.173 |
| Mucoid duration (hrs) | 36 (24 - 53.5) | 25 (18 - 48) | 0.054 |
| Diarrhea duration (hrs) | 48 (39 - 72) | 48 (27 - 72) | 0.088 |
| Duration of illness | |||
| Hospital stay (days) | 5 (4 - 5) | 4 (3 - 5) | 0.276 |
| Disease duration (days)c | 7 (6 - 8) | 5 (4 - 7) | 0.009 |
a p Values calculated using either the Chi-square test or the Kruskal-Wallis test
b Cells in Stool assessed as described in methods
c Disease duration calculated by addition of history of disease and stay in hospital
d Interquartile range values in brackets unless stated