Cera Products Tackle Diarrheal Illness Outbreaks Caused by Contaminated Food

08/11/06 An increase in widespread outbreaks of diarrheal illness and some deaths linked to contaminated food supplies in the U.S., including spinach and carrot juice from California and, most recently, fresh produce in 18 states, highlights the need for Americans to keep a simple but sophisticated remedy, called CeraLyte, on hand to combat the potentially deadly health dangers of severe diarrhea and dehydration. CeraLyte Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS), produced by Cera Products, is an over- the-counter rice-based remedy for preventing and correcting dehydration from diarrhea.

CeraLyte is also included in a "Bacterial and Viral Outbreak Relief Kit" sold by Sani-Guard of Dayton, Ohio. The kit features 10 packets of CeraLyte ORS, Pepto-Bismol tablets, Sani-Guard fogger and spray, soap, hand sanitizer and rubber gloves.

CeraLyte and the kit especially address another diarrheal illness: infectious C. difficile diarrhea, which is increasing in U.S. nursing homes and health care facilities. C. difficile often follows antibiotic treatment and is easily transmitted from person to person, explains William Greenough, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Public Health and Hygiene, among those physicians who helped create the Cera Products line.

Diarrheal illness, whether food- or bacteria-borne, is more hazardous for the very young, the elderly and people undergoing treatments for cancer or those with HIV or other immune system disorders, all of whom are more vulnerable to dehydration.

Intravenous treatment for dehydration of the elderly means an average hospital length of stay of 4.6 days, costing $1,628 a day, compared to an oral rehydration treatment alternative, such as CeraLyte, with a one- to two-day hospital stay and a cost of $5 per packet of CeraLyte. According to Dr. Greenough and other world ORS experts, oral rehydration is faster, more effective, less costly and less painful than IV treatment.

"The rice-based, long-chain carbohydrate formula in CeraLyte is easier for the body to absorb than a sugar-based drink," says Hopkins physician W. B. Greenough, III, M.D.

"CeraLyte matches the body's natural composition," says Charlene Riikonen, CEO of Cera Products, "and rehydrates with sustained delivery of essential salts and minerals, reducing fluid losses by up to 30 percent, versus simple glucose-based hydration products which only hydrate."