SEVERAL cases of neonatal shigellosis have been reported recently in industrialized areas.1-3 Practically all the Shigella infections reported were accompanied by serious clinical manifestations, mainly diarrhea, with several deaths. In the present paper, the authors want to advance observations on Shigella infections in neonates from a semiprimitive Mayan village of Guatemala, because the behavior of infections in these infants departs from that described by the American authors.
The cases herein reported were observed during a longitudinal study in which a cohort of children is followed in their natural environment from the time of birth, in order to observe their general health condition, their growth, their diet, and the colonization of the intestine by parasites, yeasts, bacteria, and viruses. Only the infection by Shigella, observed in infants under 1 month of age, will be described and discussed in the present paper.
Methods
Study Area.—Since February 1964, children born in