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New plan to tame the world’s number two killer
A man suffering from diarrhoea in southern Somalia. Eastern African countries are among the top 15 which account for almost three-quarters of diarrhoea deaths globally. Photo/FILE
Posted Monday, October 26 2009 at 00:00
The other three measures recommended by the two agencies are rotavirus and measles vaccination for all children below five; universal distribution of zinc supplements; and fluid replacement to prevent dehydration whenever diarrhoea occurs.
Rotavirus alone causes 40 per cent of all hospital admissions from diarrhoea in children under five years worldwide, and was recently recommended for inclusion in all national immunisation programmes.
“It is a tragedy that diarrhoea, which is little more than an inconvenience in the developed world, kills an estimated 1.5 million children each year,” said Unicef executive director Ann M. Veneman in a press statement announcing the new guidelines.
“Inexpensive and effective treatments for diarrhoea exist, but in developing countries only 39 per cent of children receive the recommended treatment.”
“Global attention and funding directed toward childhood diarrhoea in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in a major reduction in deaths,” reports the Lancet.
“But these efforts lost momentum as the world turned its attention to other global issues,” the journal adds.
Those other “global issues” are HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.
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