UNSW researchers found that Aeromonas has surpassed Salmonella as the primary cause of gastroenteritis.
According to Microbiology Spectrum, Aeromonas caused the most sickness in children under 18 months.
UNSW Associate Professor and research co-author Li Zhang said Aeromonas are the second most common intestinal bacterial diseases across all age groups and the most common in children under 18 months.
Aeromonas pathogens are not regularly detected in gastro patient stool samples.
Zhang suggests adding Aeromonas to the common intestinal bacterial pathogen list due to its high frequencies.
Between 2015 and 2019, the researchers used PCR testing to assess data from over 340,000 gastroenteritis patients, including faecal samples.
Gastroenteritis, or gastro, is a contagious short-term digestive tract infection and inflammation that produces vomiting and diarrhoea.
The authors found that Aeromonas infections were most common in young children and those over 50, with a slight rise in adults 20-29.
Zhang adds bacterial infections usually have one peak age, so those three infection peaks dependent on patient age are unexpected.
After Campylobacter, Salmonella was thought to cause gastro. Other research implies Aeromonas infections may be more severe & require antibiotics than other organisms.