Table 1.

Truelove and Witts’ severity index.

	Mild	Moderate	Severe
Bowel movements (no. per day)	Fewer than 4	4–6	Six or more plus at least one of the features of systemic upset (marked with *)
Blood in stools	No more than small amounts of blood	Between mild and severe	Visible blood
Pyrexia (temperature greater than 37.8°C) *	No	No	Yes
Pulse rate greater than 90 bpm *	No	No	Yes
Anemia *	No	No	Yes
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (mm/hour) *	30 or below	30 or below	Above 30

Adapted from Sturm et al.13