Volume 5, Number 2—April 1999
Dispatch
An Epidemic of Bloody Diarrhea: Escherichia coli O157 Emerging in Cameroon?
Patrick Cunin*, Etienne Tedjouka†, Yves Germani‡, Chouaïbou Ncharre§, Raymond Bercion*, Jacques Morvan‡, and Paul M.V. Martin*
Table 1
Bloody diarrhea epidemic in 22 villages south of the Dja River, East Cameroon, 1997–1998
| Age group (yr) | Female |
Male |
p | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cases | No.a | Rate (%) | Cases | No.a | Rate (%) | ||
| 0-4 | 16 | 221 | (7.2) | 14 | 218 | (6.4) | NSb |
| 5-9 | 16 | 191 | (8.4) | 11 | 191 | (5.8) | NS |
| 10-19 | 25 | 321 | (7.8) | 18 | 313 | (5.8) | NS |
| 20-29 | 22 | 211 | (10.4) | 25 | 207 | (12.1) | NS |
| 30-39 | 15 | 127 | (11.8) | 14 | 154 | (9.1) | NS |
| 40-49 | 16 | 89 | (18.0) | 14 | 101 | (13.9) | NS |
| 50-59 | 11 | 63 | (17.5) | 4 | 70 | (5.7) | <0.05 |
| 60 + | 25 | 63 | (39.7) | 7 | 69 | (10.1) | <10-4 |
| Total | 146 | 1,286 | (11.4) | 107 | 1,324 | (8.1) | <0.01 |
| p | <10-8 | <0.05 | |||||
aNumber of village inhabitants.
bNS, not significant.
