High Prevalence of or Enteroinvasive Carriage among Residents of an Internally Displaced Persons Camp in South Sudan.

Bliss J Bouhenia M Hale P Couturier BA Iyer AS Rumunu J Martin S Wamala JF Abubakar A Sack DA Luquero FJ Couturier MR Azman AS Leung DT
The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene 2018 02 ; 98(2); 595-597. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.17-0339. Epub 2017 11 30

Abstract

Displaced persons living in camps are at an increased risk of diarrheal diseases. Subclinical carriage of pathogens may contribute to the spread of disease, especially for microbes that require a low infectious dose. Multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to detect a panel of 20 bacterial, viral, and protozoal targets, and we report a high prevalence of enteropathogen carriage, including spp. or enteroinvasive in 14%, among a sample of 88 asymptomatic individuals in an internally displaced persons camp in South Sudan. Further studies are needed to determine the contribution of such carriage to the spread of disease.