Prevention of gastrointestinal infections in India

PortieOwner

Has anyone bought probiotics over the web? Swanson Health seems to have excellent prices (I have bought other stuff from them in the past but not probiotics).

drzog

British Medical Journal 2007;335:340 (18 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.39272.581736.55 (published 9 August 2007)

Research
Probiotics for treatment of acute diarrhoea in children: randomised clinical trial of five different preparations

Roberto Berni Canani, assistant professor of paediatrics1, Pia Cirillo, paediatrician1, Gianluca Terrin, paediatrician1, Luisa Cesarano, paediatrician1, Maria Immacolata Spagnuolo, paediatrician1, Anna De Vincenzo, paediatrician1, Fabio Albano, paediatrician1, Annalisa Passariello, paediatrician1, Giulio De Marco, paediatrician1, Francesco Manguso, consultant physician in gastroenterology2, Alfredo Guarino, professor of paediatrics1

Objective: To compare the efficacy of five probiotic preparations recommended to parents in the treatment of acute diarrhoea in children.

Design: Randomised controlled clinical trial in collaboration with family paediatricians over 12 months.

Setting: Primary care.

Participants: Children aged 3-36 months visiting a family paediatrician for acute diarrhoea.

Intervention: Children's parents were randomly assigned to receive written instructions to purchase a specific probiotic product: oral rehydration solution (control group); Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG; Saccharomyces boulardii; Bacillus clausii; mix of L delbrueckii var bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, L acidophilus, and Bifidobacterium bifidum; or Enterococcus faecium SF68.

Main outcome measures: Primary outcomes were duration of diarrhoea and daily number and consistency of stools. Secondary outcomes were duration of vomiting and fever and rate of admission to hospital. Safety and tolerance were also recorded.

Results: 571 children were allocated to intervention. Median duration of diarrhoea was significantly shorter (P<0.001) in children who received L rhamnosus strain GG (78.5 hours) and the mix of four bacterial strains (70.0 hours) than in children who received oral rehydration solution alone (115.0 hours). One day after the first probiotic administration, the daily number of stools was significantly lower (P<0.001) in children who received L rhamnosus strain GG and in those who received the probiotic mix than in the other groups. The remaining preparations did not affect primary outcomes. Secondary outcomes were similar in all groups.

Conclusions: Not all commercially available probiotic preparations are effective in children with acute diarrhoea. Paediatricians should choose bacterial preparations based on effectiveness data.

__________________
yours in health

http://drzog.blogspot.com

crowgirl

Our local co-op health guru (Dr.from Ethiopia) who has traveled extensively recommended us to take a product a month before and a month after going to India- It is called PB 8 made by Nutrition Now if I have my info correctly remembered. He claimed it had all of the probiotics we'd need for going to India... and they don't have to be refrigerated which is a bonus.

We took them and had no problems whatsoever.

__________________
S/he who laughs lasts

laratigger

Last time hubby was in India and had a bad tummy, he was given:
VIBACT capsules, 1 a day - a probiotic, plus and CIPLOX-500 x 2 a day for up to 5 days, plus plenty of electrolyte.

Next time we go I'm going to look out for VIBACT and take it on a daily basis to help keep my tummy happy.

Chinadolly

Hi All at IM

Has anyone else taken P.B.8 probiotics, if so can you please give me some feedback. Have just spent the last few hours reading this thread and feeling This one seems the most straight forward and simple option. Need to prepare myself as i have a weak stomach.

Nick-H

I bet it'll be stronger when you get home!

A lot of the information in this thread is do do with making yourself fitter and therefore less prone to sickness or less affected by it.

There's no magic certainty --- any more than there is a certainty that you would get sick if you do nothing but take the basic precautions! Many, many people come here without so much as a twinge. A very, very, very few catch something nasty.

A rather larger number spend a day or two of their trip in, or not far from, the loo.

Its a big enough number to take sensible precautions, and for threads like this to exist --- but it is not compulsory to be ill in India!

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

Patheya

i just wanted to share a link
http://www.mdtravelhealth.com/destin...sia/india.html

Nick-H

Wow! That's quite a site! Thanks for the link.

Far more there than just the gastro stuff; covering pretty much all the risk diseases.

What is interesting is the statistics given of recent outbreaks of individual diseases --- although it is very probable that much in india goes unreported.

Chinadolly

Thanks Patheya a brillant site

ksalvage

I know this may be obvious to many of you, but it was not to me and I paid the price I've been sick now for days because I drank tap water without knowing or thinking about it. Mc Donalds coke is fountain coke, straight from the tap to you. I'm not sure if they purify it, but all I ate on saturday was macdonalds with their coke and since then I've been realy sick. I could not figure out what I had eaten because the food seemed good. Then it clicked. fountain coke. ugh

kristinm

Good warning!
I was wondering if anyone had thought about taking that medical honey and having a spoonful a day - I have just bought some for cuts and scrapes and so on, and was reading that it is good for tummy upsets as well. I am going to take probiotics too, but it wouldn't be hard to pop a small jar of honey in the bag and have some with hot water morning or night? It might also be good to have along for treating cuts or infections?

Nick-H

You ate Macdonalds.

And you blame the water?

Seriously... hope you're better soon, and welcome to the site

Also seriously, food can be pretty full of bacteria before it is noticably off, and I expect the coke seemed good too? You could even have picked up the infection from the last person to sit at your table, or the last person to handle the change they gave you. People very often entirely forget touch as a disease carrying vector.

I hate to say it, but Macdonalds could be entirely innocent!

ksalvage

Mc Donalds could be innocent, but I doubt it I gottired of eating resteraunt food cos it seemed to rich etc so went for Mc Donalds and it tasted great, adn the coke hit the spot. So that night I went again. All I ate on Saturday was MDs and on Sunday at about 1am the stomich cramps started with a headache that felt like my head was splitting. Trying to sit up and work on the computer was somewhat of a joke, cos the thing would not hold still! The screen kept moving and the keys were wrigling. This was not good

Yeah, I guess there could be any number of reasons why one gets sick, but I have been really fastidious in terms of cleaning hands before eating etc. Ah, wll, just my advice, don't drink fountain coke I am feeling a lot better having not eaten for 3 days and I guess my comapny will apreciate the reduction in expense claims

Betty

Hi drzog: I am not certain if this is the way to contact you. I am in the US. Where can I find the Swedish bitters which contain Andrographis paniculata and Ocimum tenuiflorum???? Thank you. Betty

wonderwomanusa

I think the food is more likely a cause of illness than the coke. Drinking water in India would not make you sick a matter of hours afterwards -- but bad food will do that.