Safety and Tolerability of Nonspecific Antidiarrheals in Children with Acute Diarrhea

Introduction: In clinical practice, nonspecific antidiarrhealsare most commonly used by clinicians along with routinetreatment to hasten the recovery. This study was conductedto to study the safety and tolerability of these nonspecificantidiarrheals in children with acute diarrhea.Material and Methods: This was a prospective, observationalstudy done in clinical settings for a period of 3 years at twopediatric clinics and at a tertiary care hospital. Children weredivided into 5 treatment groups (viz, control, racecadotril,Mebarid, Diarex and loperamide) at the discretion of thepediatrician. One questionnaire was provided to parents torecord the details about the course of diarrhea and parentswere sensitized to report any adverse event.Results: Overall occurrence of adverse events wassignificantly higher in racecadotril group (34.86%) comparedto other groups (C:23.16%, M:21.14%, D:17.95%, L:17.65%).Conclusion: These agents may be safe, effective andinexpensive addition to the routine treatment of acute diarrhea.

Hand washing and occurrence of diarrhoea and acute respiratory tract infection.

This cross-sectional study done in 2014 explored the hand-washing practice and its relation with the occurrence of acute diarrhoea and acute respiratory tract infection (ARI) among grades 9 and 10 students from No.1 Basic Education High School, North Okkalapa Township, Yangon Region. Altogether 380 students were selected: inclusive of 190 students from ninth grade and the same number of students from tenth grade by using multistage sampling procedure. Anonymous self-administered questionnaires were used in data collection. Results indicated that only 19.7% (95% CI = 15.9%, 24.1%) of students reported proper handwashing practices. The occurrence of acute diarrhoea and ARI among students within last three months were reported as 40.8% (95% CI = 35.9%, 45.8%) and 98.2% (95% CI = 96.2%, 99.2%), respectively. There were statistically significant associations between age (p = 0.002), gender (p =0.002), grade (p = 0.001), socio-economic status (p = 0.05) and practice of hand-washing. Moreover,proper hand-washing practice significantly influenced the occurrence of acute diarrhoea (p =0.001) and occurrence of ARI (p = 0.004) among students. Therefore, the enabling environment for hand-washing should be created for children at school as well as in their home settings. This may lead the children to adopt and sustain proper hand washing-practice in regular manner.