What's new in enteric infectious diseases at home and abroad

This review was designed to focus on the important research in the area of acute infectious diarrhea published within the past year. PubMed was reviewed for articles published in 2004 and 2005 relating to pathogen-specific diarrhea and for travelers' diarrhea to identify the newly published articles.

New studies continue to show the importance of the diarrheagenic Escherichia coli as causes of acute and persistent diarrhea. Enteroaggregative E. coli has recently been shown to be an unrecognized cause of community-acquired diarrhea in infants in the USA. Genetic factors explain an increased susceptibility to travelers' diarrhea among international travelers. Also, poorly non-absorbed rifaximin (< 0.4%) was shown to be an effective drug when used prophylactically to prevent bacterial diarrhea during high risk travel.

Studies will continue to define the etiology of diarrhea and to better understand the epidemiology and prevention of infectious diarrhea. Antibacterial resistance among enteric bacterial pathogens is a growing problem, leading to the search for newer antibacterial drugs. Diarrhea due to bacterial agents in international travelers can be prevented and treated successfully by antibacterial drugs. The nonabsorbed rifamycin drug, rifaximin, appears to be ideally suited to become the important new drug in prevention and treatment of travelers' diarrhea. Studies are underway to determine the value of the drug in preventing invasive forms of diarrhea during travel to Asia and in the prevention of the commonly occurring post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome.