"Good" bacteria may relieve diarrhea in children

Last Updated: 2008-06-25 12:35:39 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Will Boggs, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The "good" strain of Escherichia coli -- known as E. coli Nissle 1917, or EcN -- is effective in treating diarrhea in infants and toddlers, researchers have found.

"We believe it is best to start probiotic therapy as early as possible," Dr. Jobst Henker from University Carl-Gustav-Carus, Dresden, Germany, told Reuters Health.

The "probiotic" EcN, which does not cause disease in humans, has been licensed in Europe for 90 years for treating bowel diseases, Henker and colleagues note in a report in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

In their study of 151 infants and toddlers with diarrhea lasting more than 4 days, more children treated with EcN than with placebo showed a response to treatment on day 7 (roughly 79 percent vs 59 percent, respectively), day 14 (93 percent vs 66 percent), and day 21 (99 percent vs 71 percent).

Moreover, diarrhea lasted a median 3.3 days less in children treated with EcN, and the number of stools decreased to 3 or less daily 2 days sooner in the EcN group than in the placebo group.

More children in the EcN group than in the placebo group improved from a "moderate" state of health to a "good" or "very good" state of health during the course of treatment.

There were no serious or severe side effects from EcN treatment, the investigators say, and parents' and investigators' ratings indicated that EcN was well tolerated by the children.

"There is more and more evidence now for the effectiveness and safety of probiotic drugs," Henker told Reuters Health.

SOURCE: The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, June 2008.