The rate of children with diarrhea is very high

Dr. Pham Thi Ngoc Tuyet, Department of Gastroenterology, Children's Hospital II in Ho Chi Minh City, said that diarrhea is one of 10 diseases with the highest incidence of children suffering from Vietnam. The main cause of this disease is because children use contaminated food because they are not well preserved.

Children inpatient treatment at the hospital.(Photo: VNE)

In addition, according to Dr Tuyet, children eat at the wrong time, not at the right dosage; high protein foods; The amount of pesticide used on fruits and vegetables is too large ., also the cause of the disease.

A study at Children's Hospital II confirmed that the rate of children hospitalized for diarrhea is very high compared to other diseases. And the number does not change much over the years. Every year, nearly 7,000 patients are admitted to the hospital because of diarrhea. More than 90% of them are suburban districts, accounting for 30% of the number of inpatient beds. The most infected age is children under 3 years old.

Most children are admitted to hospital early, during the first 3 days of illness, the number of outpatient visits is less than 6 times / day. Children often go to the hospital in fever, vomiting, weight loss, dehydration and go outside .

A child with diarrhea must be hospitalized, usually on average 5 days. More than 20% of patients are hospitalized for more than 7 days. Factors related to hospital stay: use of antibiotics, infusion, bronchitis, lung, dehydration, hypokalemia, infection of other organs . (most often upper respiratory inflammation , bronchopneumonia).

In medicine, diarrhea is defined as going out with a lot of fluid and fluid, more than 3 times a day . In the past, when patients had diarrhea to emergency at the hospital, in addition to normal resuscitation measures, antibiotics must also be used for treatment.

"However, many cases of physicians using unreasonable antibiotics prolong the status of the infection and the hospital stay of the patient. Because most antibiotics often have side effects. The effect is to kill pathogens but also to kill symbiotic bacteria that benefit the body. The more unreasonable the use of side effects, " explained Dr. Tuyet.

Tests at Children's Hospital II showed that patients with non-bacterial diseases accounted for the most, followed by infections . The establishment of pathogens is still low due to technical and technical limitations. Microbiology. The orientation of diagnosis can only be based on disease manifestations such as fever, out-of-date status, decrease of health .

Recently, researchers believe that the change in composition and properties of feces when children get sick is more important than the number of visits. And this affects the decision to use antibiotics in treatment. A new antibiotic (Probitic) was tested on more than 600 patients hospitalized with diarrhea, giving very good results such as shortening the duration and duration of treatment, and also being able to prevent digestive disorders due to use antibiotics. "This has a great idea to help patients recover quickly and limit the risk of malnutrition. Because the biggest risk of the disease is to cause malnutrition," Dr. Tuyet said.

However, according to doctors, diarrhea can be treated simply by adding water and mineral salts. Only children with signs of new infections should take antibiotics according to the doctor's instructions.

The most common age is under 3 years old . The younger the child, the greater the risk of severe and prolonged illness. Therefore, doctors advise parents to take their children to the doctor if they go outside the loose stool for more than 6 hours, or in addition to diarrhea, children also vomit or fever . Do not arbitrarily let children take medicine antiemetic or stop diarrhea because children will have abdominal distention, difficulty breathing, and sleep due to side effects of the drug.

My Lan