OBJECTIVE: To analyze trends in hospitalization and mortality rates for diarrhea in children less than one year old. METHODS: An ecological time-series study, between 1995 and 2005, was performed for Brazil as a whole and for the state capitals. Secondary data from the Ministry of Health was utilized, obtained from the Hospital Information System and from the Mortality Information System. During the study period, 1,505,800 hospitalizations and 39,421 deaths from diarrhea were registered among children under one year. Polynomial regression […]

The faecal samples of 162 children with acute diarrhea were tested by counterimmunoelectrophoresis in order to detect rotaviruses. In 72.7%, 77.7% and 66.6% of samples from children of different age groups, varying from 6 to 8 months to 1 year or older, a positive result was found.

During the second half of 1986 the impact of the improvement of water supply and excreta disposal facilities on diarrheal diseases and intestinal parasitosis was studied in 254 children up to six years of age from two favelas (shanty towns) of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The estimated incidence of diarrhea was 6.2 episodes/child year and the estimated period prevalence reached 31.0 episode days/ child/ year. The point prevalence of parasitosis was 70.7% (Ascaris lumbricoides: 55.4%, Trichuris trichiura: 19.6%, Giardia lamblia: 17.9%). […]

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate excess mortality due to infectious diarrhea without etiological diagnosis, occurring simultaneously to Vibrio cholerae circulation. METHODS: Statistical modeling was applied to a time series of deaths ascribed to “poorly defined intestinal infections” (International Classification of Diseases – ICD-9) and “presumably infectious diarrhea and gastroenteritis” (ICD-10), between 1980 and 1998 in the Northeast Region of Brazil. The prediction of expected values was obtained after a discontinuity point. Excess mortality was calculated as the difference between observed figures and […]

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the influence of the type of child-care on the occurrence of acute diarrhea with special emphasis on the effect of children grouping during care. METHODS: From October 1998 to January 1999 292 children, aged 24 to 36 months, recruited using a previously assembled cohort of newborns, were evaluated. Information on the type of care and occurrence of diarrhea in the previous year was obtained from parents by telephone interview. The X² and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to […]

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the temporal pattern of hospitalization and deaths due to diarrhea among children less than five years old between 1995 and 1998 to support specific prevention actions and disease control strategies. METHODS: Data was collected from the Ministry of Health’s Mortality Data System and Hospitalization Data System. Monthly time series of diarrhea hospitalizations and deaths were decomposed into stochastic linear trend, deterministic seasonal and irregular components using structural time series models. RESULTS: The levels of both series showed […]

The present study was carried out in order to assess the plasma levels of vitamin A, carotenoids and retinol binding protein (RBP) of three-hundred and eleven children aged from seven months to eleven years, who had a history of upper respiratory infection (URI), pneumonia and diarrhoea. The children were resident in the urban area of the Municipality of S. Paulo, Brazil, and were seen at the pediatric service of the one school-hospital. The data show that plasma vitamin A (µg/dl) […]

People customarily use the extracts of plants known to have antidiarrhoeal effects without any scientific base to explain the action of the extract. For this reason, an investigation was undertaken with a view to determining the efficacy of the effects of the brute aqueous extract (BAE) of the leaves of Psidium guajava (guava), Stachytarpheta cayenensis (bastard vervain), Polygonum punctatum (water. smartweed), Eugenia uniflora (Brazil or Surinam cherry) and Aster squamatus (zé-da-silva) on the intestinal transport of water in rats and […]

OBJECTIVE: Data from two consecutive household surveys undertaken in mid-80s and mid-90s allow to characterize and analyse secular trends in infant and child diarrhea in the city of S. Paulo, Brazil. METHODS: The two surveys included random population samples aged from zero to 59 months of age (1,016 in the period of 1984-85 and 1,280 in 1995-96). In both surveys the instant prevalence of diarrhea (proportion of examined individuals reporting three or more episodes of liquid stools in 24 hours) […]

Papers on child-care attendance as a risk factor for acute respiratory infections and diarrhea were reviewed. There was great variety among the studies with regard to the design, definition of exposure and definition of outcomes. All the traditional epidemiological study designs have been used. The studies varied in terms of how child-care attendance in general was defined, and for different settings. These definitions differed especially in relation to the minimum time of attendance required. The outcomes were also defined and […]