Table 6.

Antimicrobial therapy of persistent infectious diarrhoea

Enteropathogen	Antimicrobial therapy	Alternative(s)
Protozoa
Giardia intestinalis	Metronidazole 400 mg tds 7–10 days80	Tinidazole 2 g single dose80
Cryptosporidium parvum	?Paromomycin 500 mg qds71	?Nitazoxanide14
Cyclospora cayetanensis	TMP-SMX 2 tabs bd 7 days79
Isospora belli	TMP-SMX 2 tabs qds 10 days
Microsporidia
Encephalitozoon intestinalis	? Albendazole 400 mg bd 14–28 days73	?Furazolidone 100 mg qds 20 days76
Enterocytozoon bieneusi	? Atovaquone75
Entamoeba histolytica	See table 5 ▶
Balantidium coli	See table 5 ▶
Helminths
Strongyloides stercoralis	Albendazole 400 mg od 3 days	Thiabendazole 25 mg/kg bd 2–3 days
Schistosoma spp	Praziquantel 2–3 doses on day 1	Ivermectin 100–200 μg/kg od 2 days
S mansoni, S haematobium	Praziquantel 40 mg/kg/d
S japonicum	Praziquantel 60 mg/kg/d
Virus
Cytomegalovirus	Ganciclovir 5 mg/kg bd 14–21 days	Foscarnet 60 mg/kg tds 14–21 days maintenance therapy required

The treatment of other bacterial infections that can cause persistent diarrhoea (see table 1 ▶) can be found in table 5 ▶(references).