Infectious Diarrhea

Infectious Diarrhea

Multiple Choice

A 3-year-old girl presents with a 2-day history of cramping abdominal pain and watery diarrhea. A brief generalized seizure develops, and she is hospitalized. The most likely agent causing this girl's gastroenteritis is:

• Escherichia coli O157:H7

• Campylobacter jenjuni

• Salmonella species

• Shigella sonnei

Multiple Choice

A 2-year-old previously healthy boy presents with a 2-day history of low-grade fever, abdominal cramps, and profuse diarrhea. A stool culture reveals Salmonella enteritidis. Of the following, the most appropriate management option for this child is:

• Supportive care

• Ceftriaxone one dose given intramuscularly or intravenously

• Amoxicillin orally for 5 days

• Clindamycin orally for 5 days

• Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole orally for 5 days

Multiple Choice

A healthy 2-year-old boy develops watery diarrhea for several days and is found to have Salmonella enteritidis in his stool. He attends child care. There is no history of travel. Of the following, the most likely route of acquisition of this infection is:

• Household contact

• Ingestion of contaminated food

• Child care contact

• Contact with an infected swimming pool

• Contact with an infected pet kitten

Multiple Choice

Fever, cramping abdominal pain, and bloody diarrhea develop in a 5-year-old boy. The day before the onset of symptoms, he had attended a picnic, where he ingested undercooked chicken. Of the following agents, the one most likely to be causing this boy's symptoms is:

• Campylobacter jejuni

• Shigella sonnei

• Yersinia enterocolitica

• Giardia lamblia

Multiple Choice

A 5-year-old girl develops bloody diarrhea after attending a county fair. Over the next several days, she is noted to be pale and to have decreased urine output. Of the following, the agent most likely to be responsible for this illness is:

• Campylobacter jejuni

• Entamoeba histolytica

• Enterotoxigenic E. coli

• Escherichia coli O157:H7

• Giardia lamblia

Multiple Choice

A 3-year-old boy develops bloody diarrhea 4 days after swimming in a community wave pool in July. You order stool studies and call the microbiology laboratory. For which of the following organisms would it be MOST appropriate for you to ask the laboratory to test?

• E. coli O157: H7

• Y. enterocolitica

• Salmonella enteritidis

• C. jejuni

• Rotavirus

Multiple Choice

A 2-year-old girl presents with a 1-day history of low-grade fever, abdominal cramps, and bloody diarrhea. Her family lives on a farm where she has contact with pigs, goats, sheep, and cows. In addition, her 10-year-old brother has a pet snake. She attends day care 3 days a week. Which of the following is the MOST appropriate course of action?

• Send a stool culture and treat empirically with Bactrim

• Do not send a stool culture, but treat empirically with azithromycin

• Send a stool culture and wait to decide whether to treat until the results are back

• Do not send a stool culture, treat with antibiotics if the symptoms get worse