An open, controlled study of two non-absorbable antibiotics for the oral treatment of paediatric infectious diarrhoea.

Forty-nine children in need of antibacterial treatment for a severe episode of bacterial diarrhoea were consecutively treated with either an oral paediatric suspension of rifaximin (100 mg every six hours for an average of four days: 24 patients), or paromomycin (125 mg every six hours for an average of four days: 25 patients). Stools (number and form), enteritis symptoms and signs, and intolerance manifestations were all monitored on each day of treatment. A stool culture was performed on the first available stool after enrolment and after the end of treatment to monitor the drugs' antibacterial activity. A similar rate of bacteriological cure, with normalisation of stools and elimination of the clinical symptomatology, was attained by the two antibiotics, with statistical significance of changes vs. baseline being apparent on the second treatment day, in both treatment groups. Rifaximin results were quicker (treatment lasted three days in several cases) and on the whole slightly better (though without statistical significance) than those of paromomycin: 21/24 vs. 20/25 children were completely cured, with a failure rate of three and five cases, respectively. Systemic and local tolerance of both treatments were very good in all children.