Background: Gastroenteritis is a major public health problem worldwide and remains the second leading cause of death among children under five globally. Objective of this study was to investigate and compare the efficacy of commonly available probiotics in the treatment of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) in children.Methods: This was an open label randomised controlled trial conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Bangalore for 2 years. 120 children aged 6 months to 5 years admitted with AWD of less than or equal to 48 hours duration were randomized into three groups – Group I (control) received oral rehydration therapy and zinc, Group II received Bacillus clausii in a dose of 2 billion spores twice a day and Group III received Saccharomyces boulardii as 250 mg twice a day. The primary outcome measures were total duration of diarrhoea, mean number of stools per day, consistency of stools and secondary outcome measures were duration of vomiting, fever and hospital stay. ANOVA, Student t test, Mann Whitney U test and Chi square test were used for analysis.Results: The duration of diarrhoea and hospital stay significantly reduced (41.68 hrs) in Group III compared to Group I (57.65 hrs) and Group II (53.33 hrs). (p< 0.05). The frequency of stools reduced significantly on Day 4 and the consistency of stools improved significantly on Day 3 in both the probiotic groups (p<0.05). Both the probiotics reduced the duration of fever significantly but had no effect on the duration of vomiting.Conclusions: Saccharomyces boulardii is effective in reducing the duration of diarrhea and hospital stay in children with acute gastroenteritis.

Background: Neonatal sepsis is a frequent and important cause of morbidity and mortality which accounts for one quarter of neonatal deaths. There are very few studies done in India to evaluate the role of MPV as diagnostic marker of neonatal sepsis.Methods: Prospective case control study in a tertiary care hospital. Neonates > 30 weeks gestation admitted to neonatal intensive care unit during the study period of 1 year with clinically suspected were included in the study. Neonates with Septic screen positive and culture positive sepsis were included in group A and normal neonates were included in Group B. MPV was done for all the subjects and values more than 10.2fl was considered positive. Newborns with congenital anomalies and who were already on antibiotics prior to admission were excluded from the study. Statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0.Results: 106 neonates were included in the study. MPV showed statistically significant difference between the study groups (mean 12.8±1.52, 10.82±1.20 respectively) at a cut of value of 10.2fl and a sensitivity of 93%, specificity of 84 % with a positive predictive value of 83% and negative predictive value of 94%.Conclusions: MPV can be used as an adjuvant marker along with established septic screen to ensure early diagnosis and treatment of neonatal sepsis with no additional expense.

Background: Prevalence of skin diseases amongst children of a community is an indicator   of health and personal hygiene of a society. School children are more prone for skin infections and majority of them are preventable. Present study aimed to find the common dermatoses in school children of rural area.Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted among 400 children from three randomly selected schools. Socio-demographic data was collected using a pretested semi structured questionnaire and skin conditions were identified by examination.Results: Out of the total 400 children, 224 (56%) were boys and 176 (44%) were girls. The overall prevalence of skin conditions was 222 (55.5%). Majority (27.5%) had fungal infection, 15% had bacterial infection, 10% had parasitic infection and 3 % had viral infection.Conclusions: Prevalence of skin infections is high in present study, hence creating awareness about personal hygiene among parents, children and teachers is the need of the hour.