1 out of 10 Pinoys has diarrhea

Diarrhea is a common gastrointestinal disorder afflicting 10 percent of the Philippine population annually, a leading medical scholar revealed. In developing countries, it is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality second only to respiratory tract infections.

Dr. Peter Sy, president of the Association of Asia Brewery Medical Scholars (AABMS), told the group’s 110th forum at Century Park Hotel that diarrhea is considered chronic if the duration is more than three weeks. Diarrhea is defined as production of abnormally loose stools and excessive frequency of defection. An objective measure would be stool weight in excess of 250 grams per day.

Sy, a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, said acute diarrhea usually last for two to three days.

"Foods rich in protein, and carbohydrates can also cause diarrhea," Sy said, who took up further studies in gastroenterology at the University of Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, in Germany, in 1995 as a scholar of the Asia Brewery Medical Specialty Scholarship Foundation (ABMSSF).

Most of the resource persons at the forum were recipients of the ABMSSF scholarship program, one of the beneficiaries of the Tan Yan Kee Foundation of industrialist Lucio Tan.

Oral dehydration formula against diarrhea has been recommended by the World Health Organization and is commercially available, but the formula can be made at home – 3/4 teaspoon of table salt, a teaspoon of baking powder, four tablespoons of sugar, one cup orange of table salt, a teaspoon of baking powder, four tablespoons of sugar, one cup orange juice and one liter of clean water.

Antibiotics, he said, should generally be prescribed only when an enteric pathogen has been identified and its antibiotic resistance pattern is known. "The only exception is traveler’s diarrhea, early treatment of which can shorten the course of illness from three to five days to a few hours."