Abstract
Background: Globally, infectious diarrhea (also known as gastroenteritis) estimated as a major public are selfhealth concern. Fortunately, such diseases limiting, but the diagnosis of the infecting microbe is important for the prevention and control of the disease (fooddiarrhea is a major cause of childhood mortality, with est imated 1.9 and 5.6 million deaths yearly. In the last few decades, several enteric pathogens including bacteria (such as, Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Salmonella and parasites ( e.g., Cryptosporidium and Shigella) spp.) have been identified as important causes of diarrhea in humans, particularly in children. pathogens either have not yet or have rarely been reported from pediatric diarrhea in Libya and other countries of the Nort Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the presence of bacterial agents of enteric disease in the study area. Methods: Stool samples collected from three hundred Libyan children with diarrhea, attending to Benghazi pediatric hos examined for bacterial agents, the specimens were cultured and antibiotic sensitivity done using carried out between April 2016 Results:and April 2017. Of the 300 examined stool Conclusion: samples, borne disease). Infectious , viruses (e.g., norovirus, adenovirus, and astrovirus), However, these h Africa region. pital in Benghazi, were standard microbiological techniques. The study was Salmonella was detected in 13 (4.3%). gender (53.85%) were from male the remaining (46.15%) were from female .The majority of isolates (84.6%) were from patients less than 5 years old. All isolates were in the summer seaso n. Antibiotic resistance was low in our study. All isolates were sensitive to nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol. The result reveals st atistically significant association between diarrhea and patients' age, seasonal variation and Antibiotic sensitivity. The present work has clearly demonstrated that Salmonella is the causative agents of diarrhea. In the future, studies are needed on larger groups of patients from major cities in Libya to determine the exact role of these bacteria in children diarrhea in t he country.