Diarrheal deaths in children living in New Mexico: toward a strategy of preventive interventions.

We reviewed 26 childhood diarrheal deaths examined by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, from 1980 through 1989, to identify circumstances surrounding the illness that might lead to strategies for prevention. Children who died were younger than 9 months of age (88%) and were from minority groups (American Indian 54%, Hispanic 23%); 12 (46%) had seen a physician within 3 days of death. Interventions to avert these deaths include educating parents to seek earlier treatment and health care providers to recognize that acutely dehydrating diarrhea can be fatal.