Nalidixic acid in diarrhoea.

In a private practice set-up from June 21, 1982 to December 31, 1984, 109 children who were admitted to the hospital with acute bacterial diarrhoea diagnosed on the basis of clinical findings and faecal leucocytes over 10/high power field, were treated with nalidixic acid 55 mg/kg in 4 divided doses to find out its effectiveness. The youngest in this study group was of 18 days, the oldest was of 16 years and the mean age was 2.61 years. In this group 72 were male children and 37 female. The average duration of stay in hospital was 2.71 days. Before admission 40 children (36%) had prior antimicrobial treatment elsewhere. These children were re-evaluated 14 hours after treatment and clinical improvement was observed in most of the cases. It was found that nalidixic acid was an effective and safe antimicrobial agent in acute infectious diarrhoea. It cut down the days of hospitalisation and cost. It was well tolerated even in children less than 3 months.