What is the most common cause of traveler’s diarrhea?
- ETEC infection is the most common identified cause of traveler’s diarrhea in most of the world.
- ETEC strains cause a watery diarrhea syndrome of varying severity resulting from the production of one or two enterotoxins: heat-stable toxin and heat-labile toxin (LT).
- The LT variant is closely related to cholera toxin and results in profuse, watery diarrhea.
- Other diarrheagenic E. coli (EAEC), Campylobacter, Shigella, and Salmonella infections are common as well.
- Viral and parasitic infection cause a minority of episodes.