Probiotics in the prevention of traveller's diarrhoea.

Traveller's diarrhoea (TD) is a common health complaint affecting healthy travellers. With an incidence rate of 20-50% it has been estimated that the illness affect at least 11 million people annually. Because of the widely varying causes of TD, the chances developing an effective vaccine for prophylaxis are limited. Antibiotics are effective prophylaxis but are not recommended for widespread use and thus there is a need for cost-effective alternative treatments.

Probiotics, non-pathogenic micro-organisms which exert a positive health benefit to their host, have been suggested as a safe and effective method to prevent TD. In this study, Ecologic Travel ®, a multispecies probiotic product or a placebo is given to a group of 800 healthy, adult travellers to high risk areas for TD. By collecting Bristol scale scores such as type (consistency) of stools and frequency of stools, the occurence of TD is established. TD is defined as the passage of 3 or more unformed stools over 24 h.

A relative reduction of 50% in the occurence of traveller's diarrhoea.

Ecologic Travel ®, a multispecies probiotic product versus a placebo. Intervention consists of one sachet probiots in powder form containing the following strains: Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus salivarius and Lactococcus lactis.(Minimal number of cells: 1*109cfu/g).