Introduction:

acute diarrheal disease is an important public health problem worldwide, affecting mainly young children. However, in our country there is a low mortality due to this cause.

Objective:

to determine the incidence and risk factors of severe acute diarrheal disease in pediatric patients.

Methods:

a descriptive study, case series type, was carried out at the Pediatric Hospital of Camagüey, during the year 2022. The universe and sample consisted of 65 patients under one year of age with a diagnosis of severe acute diarrheal disease attended in the intensive care unit. The following variables were analyzed: age group, sex, trend of cases per month, municipality and area of origin, type of acute diarrheal disease, degree of dehydration, risk factors and state at discharge.

Results:

the age group zero - three months was predominant (63,0 %), male sex (52,3 %), attended in June (18,5 %), from the municipality of Camagüey (46,2 %), while Santa Cruz del Sur contributed the highest incidence rate (19,2 %). The 61,6 % suffered diarrhea of viral etiology and (80,0 %) moderate-severe dehydration. Non-exclusive breastfeeding (23,1 %) was the main risk factor identified, and 100 % were discharged alive.

Conclusions:

we conclude that the incidence of severe acute diarrheal disease in children under one year of age is low, but even so, there are risk factors, mostly modifiable, that increase its presentation.

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