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Oral
rehydration therapy
Severe dehydration
in children with acute diarrhea can lead to death.In fact, complications
related to diarrhea accounts for the death of about 5 million children
worldwide, mostly in resource poor settings in developing countries.
To counteract dehydration, a simple yet effective therapy called Oral
Rehydration therapy (ORT) can be used. ORT is inexpensive and can be
made from common household products and administered by parents of deydrated
children without much prior training. These factors make it convient
for use in areas of the world with little health infrastructure, which
are the same areas that experience the greatest mortality due to complications
of diarrhea. For this reason, ORT results in an estimated 50% reduction
in mortality related to diarrhea.
ORT works by facilitating
the transport of water across the intestine. By combining sodium, carbohydrates
and water in a proportion that mazimizes absorption of water into the
body through the large intestine, ORT can effectively rehydrate. The
discovery that lead to the development of ORT (that sodium and carbohydrates
facilitate the transport of water accros the intestinal membrane) has
been called "the
mostimportant medical advance of this century" (The Lancet,
Aug. 1978).
Homemade Oral Rehydration
Theray Recipe
http://www.rehydrate.org/solutions/homemade.htm#recipes
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