WHO to tackle diarrhoea deaths

The World Health Organization (WHO) is convening a meeting of major supporters of child health research at the end of the month to tackle the nearly two million children who die from diarrhoea each year.
The Organization has identified a number of priorities for research on diarrhoea — the cause of almost 20 per cent of child deaths globally — focusing on how to make the best use of interventions currently available.

If childhood diarrhoea is not addressed urgently, the WHO will fail to achieve the fourth Millennium Development Goal target of reducing child deaths by two-thirds by 2015.
A paper published in the March edition of the journal PLoS Medicine describes this list of priority research questions.
The cost of treating a child with oral rehydration salts (ORS) — essentially a pinch of salt and a handful of sugar mixed with clean water — and zinc is approximately €0.25.
“Having seen the devastation that childhood diarrhoea can cause, and also the almost miraculous, life-saving power of ORS and zinc, I hope we’ll receive the support we need to come up with answers to some of the key questions that remain,” said Dr Olivier Fontaine, Medical Officer with WHO’s Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development and lead author of the PLoS Medicine article.