Table 6.5.

Clinical features of acute diarrhoeal disease useful in differential diagnosis

Clinical features	Shigella	Enteropatho-genic E. coli	Salmonella (excluding typhoid fever)	Non-bacterial
Age	6 m−5 y (rare in neonate)	Less than 2 y	Any age	Any age
Diarrhoea in household	Common (>50%)	No	Variable	Variable
Onset	Abrupt	Gradual	Variable	Abrupt
Vomiting as a prominent symptom	Absent	Uncommon	Common	Common
Fever (over 39°C, 102°F)	Common	Absent	Variable	Uncommon
Respiratory symptoms	Common (bronchitis)	Absent	Uncommon (except in septicaemic form)	Common (upper respiratory)
Convulsion	Common	Rare	Rare	Rare
Anal sphincter	Lax tone (rarely, rectal prolapse)	Normal	Normal	Normal
Time after onset when seen by doctor	Early	Several days	Several days	Early
Early course, untreated	Slight or no improvement	Persistent or	Persistent	Daily improvement

Reproduced from Nelson and Haltalin (1971) by kind permission of authors and publishers.