Microbiologic methods utilized in the MAL-ED cohort study.

A central hypothesis of The Etiology, Risk Factors and Interactions of Enteric Infections and Malnutrition and the Consequences for Child Health and Development (MAL-ED) study is that enteropathogens contribute to growth faltering. To examine this question, the MAL-ED network of investigators set out to achieve 3 goals: (1) develop harmonized protocols to test for a diverse range of enteropathogens, (2) provide quality-assured and comparable results from 8 global sites, and (3) achieve maximum laboratory throughput and minimum cost. This paper describes the rationale for the microbiologic assays chosen and methodologies used to accomplish the 3 goals.