Diarrhoeal disease is still one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity of children in developing countries. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of diarrhoeal disease among male schoolchildren in Jeddah and to identify the associated risk factors, especially those related to drinking water and sanitation disposal. This cross-sectional study was conducted randomly where self-admini...

Escherichia coli has had a central place in water microbiology for decades as an indicator of faecal pollution. It is only relatively recently that the role of E. coli as pathogen, rather than indicator, in drinking water has begun to be stressed. Interest in the role of E. coli as a cause of diarrhoeal disease has increased because of the emergence of E. coli O157:H7 and other enterohaemorrhag...

From 1996 to 2003, four 12-month population-based surveys were performed in FoodNet sites to determine the burden of diarrhoeal disease in the population. Acute diarrhoeal illness (ADI) was defined as > or =3 loose stools in 24 hours with impairment of daily activities or duration of diarrhoea >1 day. A total of 52840 interviews were completed. The overall weighted prevalence of ADI in the prev...

One thousand and three diarrhoeal stool samples were processed in our laboratory during the period 1996/1997 for the presence of enteric pathogens especially Aeromonas spp., which has emerged as a new agent causing diarrhoea. Ampicillin sheep blood agar was found to be the best medium for the isolation of Aeromonas spp. from stool specimens. Enteric pathogens were found in 200 (20%) stools, of ...

Acute diarrhoeal disease in children is known to be a major public health problem among native Americans living in reservations in the southwestern part of the United States. This study was undertaken to describe the epidemiology and causative agents of diarrhoea more completely, with the expectation that this information may help in the ultimate control of the disease in this population. Three...

Pelvic colonic pressures were recorded before, during, as well as after a meal in patients with non-specific diarrhoea (12) or constipation (14), who were selected according to strict clinical criteria of bowel habit. In the basal state diarrhoeal patients as a group had significantly less colonic activity than constipated patients, but the overlap was considerable. During the meal colonic acti...

The haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) is characterized by the triad of thrombocytopenia, microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia and acute renal failure. HUS may be classified as either diarrhoeal-associated or non-diarrhoeal/atypical (aHUS). aHUS has recently been shown to be a disease of complement dysregulation, with 50% of cases involving the complement regulatory genes, factor H (CFH), membran...

Recent data showed that there is no much reduction in diarrhoea related morbidity in developing countries. This is important in view of the Millennium Developmental Goal (MDG) to be achieved by 2015. This study reviewed and analyzed after gathering the recent literature information from Pubmed, internet and other sources. The authors discussed public health issues related to diarrhoeal diseases...

Four different water sources (irrigation canals, small reservoirs, shallow wells, and tubewells), used for domestic purposes, in an irrigated area in southern Sri Lanka, were tested for Giardia spp. cysts and Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts. Identification of these parasites in water sources is important as these are increasingly recognized as causative agents of waterborne diarrhoeal disease. All...

We investigate priority setting and the global health agenda by analysing the control of diarrhoeal diseases (CDD). CDD was one of the 'twin engines' of the 1980s' child survival movement, but now has a low priority on the global health agenda, even though diarrhoeal diseases still claim around 1.5 million children annually. In this article, we develop a framework and four indicators of priorit...