ACUTE DIARRHOEAL DISEASE IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES. I. AN EIDEMIOLOGICAL BASIS FOR CONTROL.

Some of the acute diarrhoeas of man are specific infectious diseases. Another and major proportion have no demonstrated infectious agent. No characteristic clinical pattern regularly distinguishes one specific disease entity from another, nor specific from non-specific infections, nor epidemic from endemic disease. Since clinical and laboratory differentiation is at present possible for only a small fraction of the diarrhoeas, an alternative in community control, especially where facilities are limited, is to regard all diarrhoeal disease as constituting a clinical syndrome, "acute undifferentiated diarrhoeal disease", and to base control measures on the epidemiological characteristics common to the group.