Bacterial aetiology of infantile diarrhoea in Papua New Guinea.

Bacterial examination of stools of children with diarrhoea was carried out at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, where little information is available concerning the causative bacteria of diarrhoea. Shigellae, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter jejuni, and Aeromonas hydrophila were isolated with the decreasing frequency in that order. Among these, enterotoxigenic E. coli and C. jejuni were isolated for the first time in this country. Although Vibrio parahaemolyticus was recovered from sea water, no cases suffering from this organism were found.