This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Pathophysiology of infective diarrhoea

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Infective organisms are able to cause diarrhoea in a variety of ways:

  • mucosal damage caused by direct attack
  • toxin production after ingestion
  • toxin production before ingestion

The diarrhoea itself can be:

  • secretory, where deranged membrane transport results in decreased electrolyte absorption and thus decreased water absorption
  • decreased absorption, itself a result of mucosal damage, osmosis, or increased gut motility

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.