Infectious diarrheas of infants and young children

Abstract

Acute diarrhea' disease was once attributed to "indigestion." Although shigellosis, cholera, salmonellosis, giardiasis, and amebiasis have long been recognized as distinct clinical entities, it was not too long ago that many medical personnel had difficulty accepting the fact that most diarrheas are of infectious origin. The occurrence of diarrhea with the onset of weaning in many animal species and in man' and the systematic failure to identify pathogens responsible for diarrhea in the general population have, in the past, cast some doubt on its etiology.