Two hundred patients with diarrhoea in a rehabilitation camp in Ethiopia were studied in October 1985 to determine the presence of pathogens in the stool and their susceptibility to antibiotics. A total of 42 (21.1%) patients had a positive culture with enterobacteriaceae, the isolation rate was 15.6% for Escherichia coli, 3.5% for Shigella spp. and 2.01% for Salmonella spp. In-vitro antibiotic resistance was frequent among the 42 isolates: 53% of E. coli strains were found to be resistant to ampicillin, 47% to chloramphenicol, 30% to co-trimoxazole and 67% to tetracycline. Of the seven Shigella, three were resistant to chloramphenicol and four to tetracycline. Multidrug resistance (two or more antibiotics) was observed in 52.3% of the 42 isolates. The protocols used for the screening of dysenteric patients for Shigella spp. or Salmonella spp. were found to be specific but poorly sensitive. The opposite was observed for amoebiasis and giardiasis. The responsibility of widespread use of common oral antibiotics is discussed as one of the major factors of antibiotic resistance occurrence at Korem.

Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) is still endemic among Ethiopian populations. In order to assess the clinical presentation of LBRF in an Ethiopian refugee camp in northern Somalia, a referral system was organized for all pyrexias of unknown origin. Among the 134 patients referred, 37 showed Borrelia in fresh and stained blood smears. Common clinical features were: high fever (above 39 degrees C in 73% of the cases), headache and general body pain (88%), liver tenderness (62%), petechia (54%), nausea and vomiting (46%), chills and rigors (30%) and epistaxis (11%). Jaundice was absent. No fatalities were observed. The clinical picture was less severe than in previous studies on LBRF. This difference might be due to the fact that the present study was community-based as opposed to the previous studies which were hospital-based.