Although salmonella infection does not usually produce serious illness, the onset in a child may sometimes be shock-like, and many types of severe salmonella infections have occurred in patients who were being treated with cortisone or antibiotics, in gastrectomized and other post-surgical patients, and in patients in hospital with a debilitating disease.
Recently I saw a 4-year-old asthmatic child who became severely dehydrated at the onset of an attack of gastroenteritis.