Intestinal Electrolyte Transport and Diarrheal Disease

(First of Two Parts)EACH year, throughout the world, more than 5 million people, 80 percent of whom are under one year of age, die of acute, infectious diarrhea.1 The gravity of diarrheal illnesses is due largely to the immense secretory capacity of the intestinal tract, a capacity greater than that of any other organ system. All segments of the tract, from the proximal duodenum to the rectum, can secrete water and electrolytes. Adults with cholera sometimes excrete more than 1 liter of fluid per hour for several days when adequately rehydrated.2 The active secretion of water and electrolytes has . . .