[Treating travelers' diarrhea. When should medication be given?].
Along with the dizzying rise in the world's population and economic globalization, travel activity has also increased. Travelers' diarrhea, caused by changed sanitary conditions, has a very different pathogenic spectrum and clinical course from those of our native forms of infectious enterocolitis. Awareness of the warning signs of complications in the clinical course and of the differential diagnoses is therefore a prerequisite for rational therapy. This covers oral rehydration, motility inhibitors, adsorbents, antisecretory agents, probiotics, and last but not least the use of antibiotics, which make an essential contribution if correctly used. There are interesting developments in the form of nonabsorbable antibiotics and new antisecretory agents, which inhibit protein synthesis and enzymes and are increasingly used as antidiarrheal agents with few side effects. In the combination of various therapeutic options in travelers' diarrhea there is still much scope for research. The priority is the correct implementation of the options available today, in order to avoid, as far as possible, therapeutic setbacks and the development of resistance.
Birkenfeld
G
G
Medizinische Klinik I, Universitätsklinikum Regensburg, Franz Josef Strauss Allee 11, Regensburg, Germany. gabriele.birkenfeld@klinik.uni-regensburg.de
D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001285:Atropine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001729:Bismuth / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004157:Diphenoxylate / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004338:Drug Combinations; D004403:Dysentery / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D005440:Fluid Therapy; D024841:Fluoroquinolones / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008139:Loperamide / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009942:Organometallic Compounds / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019936:Probiotics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012307:Risk Factors; D012459:Salicylates / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014195:Travel
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004338:Drug Combinations; D024841:Fluoroquinolones; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D012459:Salicylates; C002534:atropine sulfate-diphenoxylate hydrochloride drug combination; C015715:bismuth subsalicylate; D008139:Loperamide; D004157:Diphenoxylate; D001285:Atropine; D001729:Bismuth