ORAL BACTERIAL THERAPY REDUCES THE DURATION OF SYMPTOMS AND OF VIRAL EXCRETION IN CHILDREN WITH MILD DIARRHEA

Background: Oral administration of live Lactobacillus casei strain GG is associated with the reduction of duration of diarrhea in children a dmitted to the hospital because of diarrhea. The purposes of this work were to investigate the clinical efficacy of oral administration of L actobacillus in children with mild diarrhea who were observed as outpa tients, and to see whether Lactobacillus GG can reduce the duration of rotavirus excretion. Methods: Duration of diarrhea was recorded in 10 0 children seen by family pediatricians and randomly assigned to recei ve oral rehydration or oral rehydration followed by the administration of lyophilized Lactobacillus casei, strain GG. Rotavirus was looked f or in the stools of all children and, in those in whom results were po sitive, stools were examined again 6 days after the onset of diarrhea. Results: In 61 children results were positive for rotavirus and in 39 results were negative. Duration of diarrhea was reduced from 6 to 3 d ays in children receiving Lactobacillus GG, with a similar pattern in rotavirus-positive and -negative children. Six days after the onset of diarrhea, stools in only 4 out of 31 children that received Lactobaci llus GG were positive for rotavirus compared with positive findings in 25 out of 30 control subjects. Conclusions: Oral administration of La ctobacillus GG is effective in rotavirus-positive and rotavirus-negati ve ambulatory children with diarrhea. Furthermore, it reduces the dura tion of rotavirus excretion. (C) 1997 Lippincott-Raven Publishers.