The role of Plesiomonas shigelloides was determined in patients attending health centres and cottage hospitals in parts of Enugu State of Nigeria had diarrhoea. During the 12-month study (March 2012 -Feb 2013), P. shigelloides was isolated from 51 (7.2%) patients who had diarrhoea and none from 500 patients without diarrhoea (p<0.01) recruited from a match control group. The age and sex distribution of the P. shigelloides patients showed that the age group 19 -31 months (16.7%) yielded the

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... st isolation for Plasiomonas shigelloides, while females 31 (60.8%) were higher than males 20 (39.2%), though the difference was not statistically significant (p>0,05). A seasonality distribution in favour of rainy season was also observed with the highest cases recruited in the periods June -August (54.9%) and September -October (23.5%). Only 2 (3.9%) were recruited between December and February. Thirty-seven (5.2%) patients had single infection with Plesimonas while 14 (2.0%) were co-infected with other bacterial pathogens. No parasitic agents were detected in the samples analysed. Twenty-seven (73%) of the patients with simple Plesimonas infection had watery diarrhoea; 24 (64.8%) had abdominal pain; 12 (32.4%) had fever, 7 (18.9 %) had visible mucus in stool, 6 (16.2%) had bloody diarrhoea while 5 (13.5%) were vomiting. Of the 5 children up to 5 years of age who had single infection, 3(60%) were clinically dehydrated. Of the 37 who had single infection, 8 (21.6%) had diarrhoea >/-14 days. The antibiogram shows that the Plesimonas strains were highly resistant to the more available antibiotics in the area, with Ampicillin having a resistivity of 90.2%, Trimetoprim sulphamethoxazole (66.7%) and Tetracycline 51%, while the less available ones like Imipenem (2%), Aztreneonam and Cefotaxime (3.9%) each, and Laevofloxacillin (5.9%), had the least resistance. The findings may be of Public Health importance for creating awareness among physicians about the clinical profile and management strategy of P. shigelloides-diarrhoea in the area.