Neonatal diarrhea at a maternity hospital in Rangoon

Between 1981 and 1986, 1,540 infants born at the Central Women's Hospital in Rangoon were transferred to the Sick Baby Unit because of diarrhea (15.4 per 1,000 live births). Rates among cesarean infants were five times as high as those of infants born vaginally (51.0 and 10.3 per 1000 live births, respectively). One hundred eighty-four of the infants with diarrhea died (case fatality rate = 12 percent). We conclude that neonatal diarrhea is endemic in this large maternity hospital in Burma, and that control efforts should be targeted especially to cesarean and low birthweight infants.