It is a self-limiting illness characterized by diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting caused by viruses or bacteria like E Coli, V Cholerae, S Aureus etc. Most of these are non-invasive or toxic diarrhea. Less commonly, patients present mainly with diarrhea with passage of mucous and/or blood in the stools.

Treatment:

1.     Oral rehydration therapy is still the key treatment for acute gastroenteritis

2.     Homemade food, soup taken in sips is also very useful

3.     In ill patients with systematic symptoms with associated bloody diarrhea, traveler’s diarrhea Tab Ciprofloxacin 500 mg twice a day for 3-5 days

4.     In Amoebic dysentery Tab Metronidazole 800 mg 3 times a day for 7 days

5.     In Cholera, Tab Doxycycline 100 mg twice a day for 5 days

6.     Patients with clinical signs of dehydration especially young children or elderly may be hospitalized

Interventions to prevent diarrhoea, including safe drinking-water, use of improved sanitation and hand washing with soap, can reduce disease risk.

Severe dehydration constitutes a medical emergency requiring immediate resuscitation with IV fluids. IV access should be obtained and patients should be administered a bolus of 20-30 ml/Kg Lactate Ringer (LR) or normal saline (NS) solution over 60 minutes. RL may independently improve pH in such cases, as lactate gets converted to bicarbonate in vivo.

The WHO recommends treating all episodes of blood in the stools with antibiotics and to use ciprofloxacin as the first-line drug. Alternatives are pivmecillinam, azithromycin, and ceftriaxone.