Major study evaluates use of antibiotics against diarrhea

Scientists at the University of Washington and Kenya Medical Research Institute are working to discern whether antibiotics could help prevent thousands of child deaths from diarrheal disease.

A four-year, $2.5 million grant from the World Health Organization is supporting UW's role in the largest clinical trial to date examining diarrhea-management. It aims to determine potential benefits of antibiotics as well as potential harms, such as antibiotic resistance.

Diarrhea remains a leading cause of death in children, mostly affecting children under 2 years in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. More than a half-million children under 5 died from diarrheal disease in 2013, according the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

“That children continue to die from diarrhea is unacceptable,” said Patty Pavlinac, UW acting assistant professor of global health and one of the lead researchers. Although interventions have greatly reduced diarrhea deaths attributed to dehydration, "young children with bacterial causes of diarrhea experience other severe consequences, including malnutrition, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and death, which are unaddressed with existing interventions," she said.