The use of oral glucose electrolyte solution prepared with untreated well water in acute non-specific childhood diarrhoea.

When untreated bacterially contaminated well water was used to constitute an oral glucose electrolyte solution, bacterial multiplication was significantly greater in the solution than in the well water. A controlled prospective trial in a West African village, comparing this solution with one prepared from clean drinking water, found no significant differences in the effects of the solutions when they were given to children suffering from acute diarrhoea. The intake of potentially pathogenic organisms from the well water solution was small compared to that from the local weaning foods. In remote areas of developing countries, where general and food hygiene is poor, it may prove possible to use such untreated water in the preparation of therapeutic glucose electrolyte solutions.