Children’s summer diarrhea profile in the city of Salta, Argentina

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the profile of patients under five years old who consulted because of diarrhea during the summer months and describe the tendency of appearance of these casesin this period. The population was made up of 1910 patients under five years old seen at the Hospital PúblicoMaternoInfantil from December 2012 to March 2013. Forty seven percent were girls and 36% of the children were a year old at the time of consultation. The seasonal nature of the studied phenomenon was fragmented and analysis was concentrated in the summer month with the highest prevalence of diarrhea. Likewise, through softening techniques, two growth periods were identified in January and February with more intensity. No significant differences were observed at initial diagnosis for the consultations in both periods, except for dehydration cases which were significantly more in the first week of January, probably related to the low level of alert of children care-takers