ben published by: Dhaka : Gonoshasthaya Kendra.

Provides authoritative information essential to those concerned with improving the rational use of drugs in the management of acute diarrhoea in infants and young children and with tackling the immense problems posed by the prescribing of clinically useless and potentially dangerous drugs. Noting that diarrhoeal diseases continue to claim some 4 million young lives each year, the book gathers the information needed to argue against the widespread use of medicines that have no established clinical benefits, are frequently harmful, and most importantly may delay or replace effective treatment measures. The book also responds to the problem of antibiotic resistance and the need to curtail the unnecessary use of antimicrobial medications. Drugs judged effective are dealt with concisely in a table listing four first-choice antimicrobials, and six alternatives, useful in the management of cholera, shigella dysentery, amoebiasis, and giardiasis. Apart from these cases of specific etiology, readers are informed that antidiarrhoeal drugs and antiemetics should never be used for children, as none has any proven practical value and some are frankly dangerous. This statement is then substantiated through a thorough review of data on eleven antidiarrhoeal drugs widely used in paediatric practice. On the basis of this review, the book concludes that none of these preparations has any documented benefits, some actually prolong diarrhoea, and others have been shown to produce severe and, in some cases, fatal side-effects. The book further concludes that the continued production, promotion, and sale of these preparations for paediatric practice cannot be justified.

DC.HQ

chi eng fre rus.

ben.

WHODOC

WHO monograph

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