Ebook: Types and Causes of Childhood Diarrhea

The three clinical types of childhood diarrhea include - acute watery, persistent and dysentery. Acute watery diarrhea which lasts for less than 14 days constitutes 60 to 80% of childhood diarrhea while persistent diarrhea lasting for more than 14 days forms 3 to 12% of all cases. The presence of blood in diarrhea stool makes it dysenteric and this occurs in 10 to 20% of cases in the developing world. Childhood diarrhea may be secretory, osmotic or invasive. Most cases of childhood diarrhea in the developing world are infective. Close to 90% of enteropathogens in childhood diarrhea are identifiable particularly with serology. This new book discusses the etiologies of childhood diarrhea, as well as variance of these symptoms in different locations around the world.