Acute diarrhea among military recruits.

There is a considerable amount of speculations concerning the presence of symptoms mainly diarrhea in various bacterial and parasitic infections. Among a youth group with acute diarrhea, many bacterial and parasitic diseases were detected. The bacterial causes were Campylobacter jejuni, Shigella sp. Entero-toxigenic, Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp. and Aeromonas hydrophila. The parasitic causes were Cryptosporidium parvum, Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia and Strongyloides stercoralis. Many accompanying symptoms were fever, headache, anorexia, vomiting, malaise, and myalgia, but cannot be used for diagnostic certainty among viral, bacterial, and protozoan causes. The data were discussed on the light of diarrheal causes encountered in Egypt.