["Minor" salmonelloses on the offensive; clinico-epidemiological aspects of Salmonella agona infections].

The incidence of "minor" salmonelloses, (one of the main infantile enteritis), has increased of late, the principal agent in 1977 and 1978 being Salmonella agona. The present paper is a clinico-epidemiological study of the characteristics of a recent episode comprising 46 cases due to Salmonella agona. Most of the cases treated in hospital had a prevalently enterocolitic aspect, without extraenteral complications, but with a reserved prognosis (10% mortality rate in the authors' experience) when associated with other diseases (bronchopneumonia, otitis, otoantritis) or when the child has a deficient constitution (congenital or acquired). It is difficult to get rid of the germ, of particular importance especially when the children return to children's institutions, by means of an etiotropic therapy, which in many cases may even delay elimination of the salmonellas. In Salmonella infections the carrier excretory state is intermittent rather than permanent. Salmonellosis caused by the agona serotype may be listed, as most of the so-called "minor" cases, in the "central" group according to the classification propossed by Newell and adopted by the World Health Organization in 1959.