Medical researchers studying
rotavirus in mice recently reported the disease appears to act by stimulating
nerves in the intestines. Rotavirus is the main cause of stomach problems
and diarrhea in infants. Worldwide the disease kills more than 600,000
infants and children annually, mostly in the developing world.

    The researchers infected baby
mice with the rotavirus and then treated the mice with lidocaine, which
numbs the nerves. The lidocaine treatment cut in half the number of diarrhea
infections in the mice suggesting that the virus indeed acts by stimulating
the nerves (one hypothesis is that the rotavirus activates the nervous
system in the intestinal wall resulting in the expression of intestinal
fluid and electrolytes, resulting in the diarrhea).

    Although this finding is unlikely
in itself to lead to any new treatment for rotavirus, it does provide
an important advance — if verified by further studies, this confirms
that all the major causes of acute diarrhea in infants and children, including
cholera and E. coli, work by stimulating the nerves in the intestines
and might be treatable by a single therapy that numbs those nerves.

Reference:

Baby killer disease \’explained\’. The BBC, January 22, 2000.