Diarrhoea: why is a simple and inexpensive treatment not more widely used?

Updated - Monday 06 November 2006

Diarrhoea kills more young children around the world than malaria, AIDS and TB combined. Time Europe examines why oral rehydration solution (ORS), a simple and inexpensive treatment that can prevent many of those deaths, is not more widely used, despite some spectacular successes in Bangladesh, India, Thailand and Ethiopia.

"To save the life of a person with diarrhoea is probably the cheapest health intervention you can think of," says David Sack, the executive director of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR,B) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Centre began experimenting with ORS in the late 1960s and now treats up to 150,000 patients a year. But the success of the hospital in Dhaka has not been replicated elsewhere.

Reasons why ORS and other simple treatment methods are not more widely used in developing countries include:

lack of nearby adequate health facilities
lack of awareness among parents about ORS
logistical problems of packaging, storing and distributing ORS sachets
since oral rehydration does not initially reduce a child's stool output, some parents conclude that it doesn't work, and give up
other diseases — such as aids, tuberculosis and malaria - have high profiles and vocal activists

Related news: Diarrhoea: drug nitazoxanide effective in combating rotavirus infection in children, Source Weekly, 27 Jun 2006

Related web sites: Rehydration Project ; Wikipedia – Oral rehydration therapy

Contact: ICDDR,B, Bangladesh, info@icddrb.org, http://www.icddrb.org

Source: Robert Horn, Alex Perry and Simon Robinson, Time Europe, 18 Oct 2006