An antibiotic can be safely used to prevent attacks of diarrhea that plague millions of globe-trotting vacationers and business travelers, a Houston research team reports this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “Our findings show that rifaximin is an ideal drug for prevention of travelers’ diarrhea, an illness that affects an estimated 20 million international travelers each year,” said lead author Herbert DuPont, M.D., director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston and chief of internal medicine at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital.
