An undated file photograph of children playing in dirty water in Kingston. The Ministry of Health has advised that safe, clean water should be used for washing fruits and vegetables in the general preparation of food and drink, to prevent the spread of the rotavirus, which causes gastroenteritis.

EIGHT children, most of them under the age of five years, have died from gastroenteritis over the past two weeks, the health ministry reported yesterday.

The victims are from the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine and St Thomas, the parishes which make up the ministry's south-east region.

Gastroenteritis, which is caused by the rotavirus, normally affects persons during the cooler months of October to March, and not the summer months.

"This is a cause for great concern as the increased cases of gastroenteritis caused by the rotavirus is unusual at this time of the year and so, too, are deaths from the condition," said Dr Karen Lewis Bell, the ministry's director of family health services.

A health ministry spokesperson told the Observer that there were three deaths related to gastroenteritis, between January and March this year, and five for the corresponding period last year, and described the recent deaths as high.

Last year there were 22,230 reported cases of gastroenteritis, an increase from 18,195 in 2001.

The ministry, among its measures to deal with the current outbreak, has carried out retraining of community health aides and peer educators in Spanish Town, who will this week be doing house-to-house educational visits in some communities of that St Catherine community.

Other health workers, the ministry said yesterday, have also been retrained to deal with gastroenteritis emergencies, while letters and guidelines for handling gastroenteritis have been sent to medical doctors in the south east region, in light of the current outbreak.

The rotavirus is a germ usually present in faeces and droplets and can be transmitted through food and person-to-person contact, and the symptoms of gastroenteritis are vomiting and diarrhoea (running belly), which occur three or more times daily.

However, the health ministry yesterday warned against the use of anti-diarrhoeals and anti-emetics to treat persons affected by gastroenteritis.

"Anti-diarrhoeals should not be administered to children who have diarrhoea and ant-emetics should never be given to children who are vomiting. This may delay appropriate results and treatment and causing serious health consequences, including deaths," the ministry warned.

A child suffering from gastroenteritis, the health ministry said, must be taken to the hospital or a health care centre if there is no improvement after they have been treated. "If the child becomes sleepy, cries without tears, front mole and eyes are sunken and starts to pass little urine, he or she must be rushed immediately for emergency care," said the ministry in a statement yesterday.

At the same time, it advised that care-givers should allow the diarrhoea to run its course and prevent dehydration by replacing the fluids that are lost. Fluids such as coconut water, breast milk, plain water, lemonade, diluted fruit juice or oral rehydration fluids should be given in small amounts at least half-hourly, and after each bowel action or vomiting.

Meanwhile, care-givers have been advised that they, too, have to help prevent the spread of the disease by washing hands after using the toilet, handling diapers, before and after handling food and after meals.

"Use safe, clean water for washing fruits and vegetables and during the general preparation of food," said the health ministry.

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