Etiology of Diarrhea Requiring Hospitalization in Bangladesh by Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction, 2014-2018.

Background: Diarrhea remains a major public health problem and characterization of its etiology is needed to prioritize interventions. However, most data are from single-site studies of children. We tested samples from participants of any age from 11 geographically diverse hospitals in Bangladesh to describe pathogen-specific burdens of diarrhea.

Methods: We utilized 2 existing diarrhea surveillance systems: a Nationwide network at 10 sentinel hospitals and at the icddr,b hospital. We tested stools from enrolled participants and nondiarrheal controls for enteropathogens using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and calculated pathogen-specific attributable fractions (AFs) of diarrhea.

Results: We analyzed 5516 patients with diarrhea and 735 controls. Overall, rotavirus had the highest attributable burden of diarrhea (Nationwide AF, 17.7%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 14.3-20.9%; icddr,b AF, 39.9%; 38.0-41.8%), followed by adenovirus 40/41 (Nationwide AF, 17.9%; 95% CI: 13.9-21.9%; icddr,b AF, 16.6%; 95% CI, 14.4-19.4%) and Vibrio cholerae (Nationwide AF, 10.2%; 95% CI, 9.1-11.3%; icddr,b AF, 13.3%; 95% CI: 11.9-15.1%). Rotavirus was the leading pathogen in children <5 years and was consistent across the sites (coefficient of variation = 56.3%). Adenovirus 40/41 was the second leading pathogen in both children and adults. Vibrio cholerae was the leading pathogen in individuals >5 years old, but was more geographically variable (coefficient of variation = 71.5%). Other attributable pathogens included astrovirus, norovirus, Shigella, Salmonella, ETEC, sapovirus, and typical EPEC.

Conclusions: Rotavirus, adenovirus 40/41, and V. cholerae were the leading etiologies of infectious diarrhea requiring hospitalization in Bangladesh. Other pathogens were important in certain age groups or sites.