One of the most affected cognitive impairments in children who experienced heavy burdens of diarrhea is semantic fluency, the same impairment that is most affected in Alzheimer's dementia. These findings are leading us into provocative genetic studies that may elucidate the evolution of such genetic polymorphisms as the APOE alleles. Alternatively, diarrhea could launch the cognitive deficits that might later progress in neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, they suggest that semantic fluency could provide a simple mean to assess cognitive impairment in impoverished settings so as to determine preventive measures.