Gastroenteritis treatment begins with rehydration by ORT, stop vomiting with antiemetic and antibiotic treatment if required.
Gastroenteritis Treatment
Your doctors usually do not prescribe antidiarrheal medications because they can prolong the infection. The best course of treatment is to replenish with fluids or foods that contain the electrolytes or complex carbohydrates. It is recommendable taking oral rehydration solution for people with diarrhea. Sometime require intravenous delivery, if there is a decreased level of consciousness or if dehydration is severe. Your doctor can use a nasogastric tube (used for feeding and administering drugs and other oral agents) in young children to administer fluids if warranted.
Some probiotics have shown to be helpful in preventing and treating gastroenteritis.
Gastroenteritis medication
Gastroenteritis cannot treat with antibiotics, if the gastroenteritis cause is viral. Gastroenteritis is generally an acute and self-limited condition, does not require medication treatment. However, Metoclopramide and/or ondansetron may be useful in case of some children, and butylscopolamine is for treating abdominal pain.
Antiemetic’s medication
Antiemetic medications may be effective for treating vomiting in children. A single dose of Ondansetron helped lower need for intravenous fluids, fewer hospitalizations, and decreased vomiting. Metoclopramide (an antiemetic and gastro-pro-kinetic agent) might also be helpful. Dimenhydrinate can lower vomiting, but does not have a significant clinical benefit.
Antibiotic’s medication
Antibiotics are not useful for gastroenteritis treatment, although they are sometimes required if have severe gastroenteritis symptoms or gastroenteritis cause involves bacteria. If antibiotics have to employ, then a macrolide (azithromycin) is preferable over fluoroquinolone (has higher rates of resistance).
In the case of Giardia species or entamoeba histolytica, tinidazole treatment is effective than metronidazole.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the antibiotics use among young children having both bloody diarrhea and fever.
Anti-motility medication
Anti-motility agents are drugs used to alleviate the symptoms of diarrhea. These drugs are not recommendable for people with bloody diarrhea or diarrhea complicated by fever. Loperamide, an opioid analogue is useful for the symptomatic treatment of diarrhea. However, loperamide is unsuitable for children, as it may cross the blood–brain barrier and cause toxicity. Bismuth subsalicylate, an insoluble complex of trivalent bismuth and salicylate, can use in mild to moderate cases; still salicylate toxicity is theoretically possible.
Gastroenteritis prevention
There are numerous vaccines against gastroenteritis are in development.
Gastroenteritis vaccination
The World Health Organization recommends the rotavirus vaccine to all children globally. The countries that implement national immunization programs have declined in the rates and severity of gastroenteritis. The first dose of vaccine should give to infants between 6 and 15 weeks of age. The implementation of a rotavirus vaccination program in the United States has dramatically reduced the cases of diarrhea by up to 80 percent.