The study aim was to assess the epidemiological potential of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in children between 2009 and 2012.
Material and methods: We studied two groups; first, a lot of 7237 cases (group A) recorded in the Iasi County through passive surveillance system, reported monthly by the network of primary health care, the assisted outpatients, respectively, those reported by hospitals. The second group (group B) was composed of 4191 hospitalized cases reported also in the passive surveillance system m by telephone, weekly, during only June/end of May to October/beginning of November. Structural peculiarities of the two groups are due to different reporting methodology, so that they were analyzed separately.
Results: AGE cases come from urban or rural areas in relatively stable proportions and slightly increased in rural areas compared to urban. The distribution by sex of cases from the group B is maintained at the same shape from one year to another, with a slight predominance in males. The best represented age group in every studied was 0-3 (54.3% of all cases), followed by children between 5 and 10 years with 17.5%). Laboratory investigations have enabled the etiologic diagnosis for hospitalized cases, which ranged from 15.3 to 17.5%, with the exception of 2009 when the diagnosis was noted for almost half of the discharged patients (47.5%).
Conclusions: AGE remains a public health problem in the Iasi County and Romania also, by affecting all age groups, but especially children under 3, an insufficient knowledge of the etiology, and economic losses insufficiently evaluated.