Diarrhoeal disease and its control

The diarrhoeal diseases are an important cause of illness throughout the world and a leading cause of death among infants and young children. Unfortunately, the greatest wealth of clinical material is found where the facilities for its study are least available. This article deals with a number of the many problems which therefore arise. The etiology is multiple, and often obscure. The relationship between the diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition is as yet far from being elucidated. Many epidemiological questions require an answer. There is no standard treatment. Prevention, it is universally agreed, depends largely upon improvement in environmental sanitation, especially upon the provision of a safe and adequate supply of piped water, but this apparently simple measure is fraught with difficulties. Much remains to be done before anything like satisfactory control of this group of diseases can be achieved.