BACKGROUND Although standard glucose-based oral rehydration therapy corrects the dehydration caused by cholera, it does not reduce the diarrhea. Short-chain fatty acids, which are produced in the colon from nonabsorbed carbohydrates, enhance sodium absorption. We conducted a study to determine the effects of an orally administered, nonabsorbed starch (i.e., one resistant to digestion by amylase...

Controversy continues regarding the optimal composition of glucose electrolyte oral rehydration solutions for the treatment of acute diarrhoea. Four perfusion models (normal human jejunum, normal rat small intestine, cholera toxin treated secreting rat small intestine and rotavirus infected rat small intestine) have been developed and used to compare the efficacy of a hypotonic oral rehydration...

Oral rehydration treatment has prevented the deaths of millions of infants in the developing world. During the cholera outbreak of 1832 in Britain, 3 important advances in fluid therapy transiently emerged: intravenous fluid therapy, oral salt and water treatment, and chemical analysis of body fluids. William Stevens provided uncontrolled evidence that fluids and salt could prevent death, and W...

Diarrhoeal infections are the fifth leading cause of death worldwide and continue to take a high toll on child health. Mushrooming of slums due to continuous urbanization has made diarrhoea one of the biggest public-health challenges in metropolitan cities in India. The objective of the study was to carry out a community-based health and nutrition-education intervention, focusing on several fac...

Diarrheal disease is one of the leading causes of worldwide morbidity and mortality, especially in children. It causes loss of body fluid, which may lead to severe dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, shock and even to death. The mortality rate from acute diarrhea has decreased over the last few decades. This decline, especially in developing countries is largely due to the implantation of the s...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy of outpatient rapid i.v. rehydration in correcting dehydration and resolving vomiting in children with mild to moderate dehydration resulting from acute gastroenteritis. METHODS We carried out a prospective cohort study in an urban children's hospital. A convenience sample of 58 children aged 6 months to 13 years, with acute gastroenteritis and clinic...

This nationwide study was conducted to assess the extent of adherence of primary-care physicians to the World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended guidelines on the use of oral rehydration therapy (ORT), antimicrobials, and prescribing of other drugs used in treating symptoms of acute diarrhoea in Bahrain. A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional survey was carried out in primary-care health cen...

OBJECTIVE This article reviews and synthesizes evidence in the published literature on the safety and efficacy of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) among young children with pediatric gastroenteritis in developed nations. METHODOLOGY We searched the literature for randomized, controlled trials comparing the safety and efficacy of ORT with intravenous (IV) rehydration treatment and/or oral rehydr...

Persistent diarrhoea is an important cause of illness and death in children in developing countries. Moreover, as acute diarrhoea is more widely and successfully treated with oral rehydration therapy (ORT), the proportion of diarrhoea deaths associated with persistent diarrhoea will probably increase. In the mid1980s the World Health Organization recognised that efforts to control persistent di...