Clinical features and duration of traveler’s diarrhea in relation to its etiology

Abstract

Clinical features of traveler’s diarrhea (TD) were studied among 126 adult Finnish tourists who developed this illness during or shortly after a visit to Morocco. Enteric pathogens were identified in 76 (60%) of cases, whereas the etiology remained unidentified in 50 cases (40%). Patients with an identified pathogen did notdiffer from those with TD of unknown etiology in terms of the time of onset of illness or the median frequency of unformed stools in the first 24 hours. In contrast, the median frequency of unformed stools between 24 and 48 hours (i.e., on the second day) was 1.0 among patients with no pathogen and 2.0 among those with enteric pathogens identified (P