[Clinical importance of infective agent persistence in Salmonella infection in children].

The persistence properties of 70 S. enteriditis cultures and 12 S. typhimurium cultures isolated from the feces of children of the earliest age groups with the gastrointestinal form of Salmonellosis infection were studied. The study revealed that the low level of persistence properties occurred in most cases of mild forms of the disease. Salmonellae with a high level of anticomplement and antilysozyme activity were more often isolated in cases of moderate and severe forms of salmonellosis. The presence of correlation between the expression of the factors under study and the severity of the symptoms of intoxication in combination with the duration of the diarrhea syndrome in moderate and severe forms of Salmonella infection in children of the earliest age groups was established. The suggestion was made that the evaluation of the persistence properties of bacteria may be used for the prognosis of the course of the infectious process.