DIARRHEAL DEATHS IN CHILDREN LIVING IN NEW-MEXICO - TOWARD A STRATEGYOF PREVENTIVE INTERVENTIONS

We reviewed 26 childhood diarrheal deaths examined by the New Mexico O ffice of the Medical Investigator, from 1980 through 1989, to identify circumstances surrounding the illness that might lead to strategies f or prevention. Children who died were younger than 9 months of age (88 %) and were from minority groups (American Indian 54%, Hispanic 23%); 12 (46%) had seen a physician within 3 days of death. Interventions to avert these deaths include educating parents to seek earlier treatmen t and health care providers to recognize that acutely dehydrating diar rhea can be fatal.