Probiotics therapy in acute childhood diarrhoea

Tessa Wardlaw and colleagues (March 13, p 870) from UNICEF and WHO discuss a significant global issue. Their report “Diarrhoea: why children are still dying and what can be done” includes a plan for upgrading manage ment of acute diarrhoea to improve child survival worldwide. However, Wardlaw and col leagues neglect to mention probiotics therapy. Various probiotics have been studied in the prevention and treatment of acute diarrhoea of childhood, with substantial benefi t. A joint com mittee of the European Paediatric Societies for Gastroenterology and for Infectious Diseases recommended use of selected probiotics in this illness. Accordingly, leading health author ities such as WHO and UNICEF should recommend use of probiotics therapy. This would, in turn, encourage further research to delineate the optimum use of this potential therapeutic tool.