MOST mothers don't know the main reason why their children get infected with diarrhoea. It's due to what is called rotavirus, a virus that infects the bowels. It is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea among infants throughout the world, causing the death of about 800,000 children worldwide annually. “Between 20 and 50 per cent of children who become infected with rotavirus end up in hospital,” says Dr Ahmed M. Saad, a professor of paediatrics at Ain Shams University in Cairo. Rotavirus in children leads to severe diarrhoea and dehydration, he explains. Most children are infected with this virus before the age of three in both developed and developing countries. To help mothers to recognise the rotavirus symptoms, Dr Saad says that the time from initial infection to the symptoms appearing (incubation period) for rotavirus disease is around two days. “Rotavirus is also associated with severe dehydration in infants and children, which can lead to death,” he warns. “Symptoms include fever, vomiting and watery diarrhoea. Abdominal pain may also occur and infected children may have profuse watery diarrhoea several times per day.” “There is no specific treatment for rotavirus, but mothers should give their infants more fluid to prevent dehydration. Children with rotavirus infection of the bowels require hospitalisation to receive intravenous fluid.”
