Acute Infective Bloody Diarrhea in Children Below Five Years Admitted to Children Welfare Hospital in Medical City - Baghdad During 2015

Bloody diarrhea in young children is usually a sign of invasive enteric infection that carry a substantial risk of serious morbidity and death. Objectives : to identify the proportion of infective bloody diarrhea out of total number of gastro-enteritis cases ,also to identify the prevalence of different etiological agents and to find the relation between the main infective etiological types of bloody diarrhea and some sociodemographic factors of this study. Retrospective study was conducted in Children Welfare Teaching Hospital / Baghdad during period extending from 1 ^st of January to 30 ^th of June 2016. Information was collected by reviewing the records of patients with acute infective bloody diarrhea under 5 years of age admitted during 2015. The study revealed that the proportion of infective bloody diarrhea was 10. 9% out of the total gastroenteritis (788) cases admitted during 2015, and Entamoeba Histolytica was the most common isolated pathogen in the study42 (48%) patients. followed by E.coli 15 cases (17.4%), shigella, salmonella 7(8%) and 4(4.7%) respectively . The most vulnerable age was those below 2 years (58%) and males were affected more than females (1.3:1), (37%) were bottle fed. The majority had chlorinated tap water supply (82.6%).