Travellers' diarrhoea.

Abstract

Introduction: It is estimated that approximately 30% to 70% of international travellers will develop diarrhoea during their travels or after returning home.

Methods and outcomes: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical question: What are the effects of treatments for acute mild-to-moderate diarrhoea in adults from resource-rich countries travelling to resource-poor countries? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to September 2014 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Results: We found 24 studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

Conclusions: In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: antibiotics (empirical), antibiotics plus antimotility agents, antimotility agents, bismuth subsalicylate, diet, oral rehydration solutions, and racecadotril for travellers' diarrhoea.