Enteric fevers in children. The importance of age in the varying clinical picture.

The experience with enteric fevers in 71 children hospitalized at the Jordan University Hospital over a 4-year period is reviewed. Forty-one children were male and 30 female. Salmonella typhi was the causative organism in 26 and Salmonella paratyphi A and B, in the remaining 45 patients. Twenty-five children were less than two years of age, and the remaining 46, older than two. Gastroenteritis-like symptoms were seen more often in the younger age group, who also tended to lack splenomegaly and leukopenia. Further, the younger children were sicker at the time of admission and had a longer illness than the older ones. It is concluded that while enteric fevers lead to a mild illness in the older child, in infants and very young children the fevers were often characterized by a severe and protracted illness, the seriousness of which was complicated by delay in diagnosis.