Burden of diarrhea, hospitalization and mortality due to cryptosporidial infections in Indian children.

Cryptosporidium spp. is a common, but under-reported cause of childhood diarrhea throughout the world, especially in developing countries. A comprehensive estimate of the burden of cryptosporidiosis in resource-poor settings is not available.We used published and unpublished studies to estimate the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Main Authors: Rajiv Sarkar, Jacqueline E Tate, Sitara S R Ajjampur, Deepthi Kattula, Jacob John, Honorine D Ward, Gagandeep Kang
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003042
https://doaj.org/article/03a852d00b1c4a65846c5ab8df5b82c3
Description
Summary:Cryptosporidium spp. is a common, but under-reported cause of childhood diarrhea throughout the world, especially in developing countries. A comprehensive estimate of the burden of cryptosporidiosis in resource-poor settings is not available.We used published and unpublished studies to estimate the burden of diarrhea, hospitalization and mortality due to cryptosporidial infections in Indian children. Our estimates suggest that annually, one in every 6-11 children <2 years of age will have an episode of cryptosporidial diarrhea, 1 in every 169-633 children will be hospitalized and 1 in every 2890-7247 children will die due to cryptosporidiosis. Since there are approximately 42 million children <2 years of age in India, it is estimated that Cryptosporidium results in 3.9-7.1 million diarrheal episodes, 66.4-249.0 thousand hospitalizations, and 5.8-14.6 thousand deaths each year.The findings of this study suggest a high burden of cryptosporidiosis among children <2 years of age in India and makes a compelling case for further research on transmission and prevention modalities of Cryptosporidium spp. in India and other developing countries.