‘Dehydration second largest cause of death globally in children under five years’

Karachi 

Children should never be given any tablets, antibiotics or other medicines unless prescribed by a trained health care provider; instead they should be given Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) to stop dehydration which is the main reason behind deaths due to diarrhea.

This was stated by Dr Irfan Habib, renowned pediatrician and head of clinical affairs at the Childlife Foundation, in his message with regards to ORS Day that is marked on July 29 every year all over the world to educate people as to how to reduce the mortality rate in children.

“If other developing nations can reduce their burden of deaths due to diarrhoea, then why not Pakistan?” he asked.

He said that dehydration was a condition in which the amount of body fluids lost – mostly water and electrolytes – surpassed that which was taken in.

“It is when more water goes out of the body than what you are drinking to replenish your supply. Humans lose body water daily through many ways like excretions as stool, sweat, and urine, and also by exhaling.

When you lose excess water, your body goes out of balance or becomes dehydrated. Death can even occur in severe cases,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and various other agencies, dehydration is the second largest cause of death in children globally under 5 years. It kills more children than a combination of measles, AIDS and malaria as 1.5 million children lose their lives due to diarrhoea each year.

“Although these statistics are disturbing, people’s lack of knowledge regarding dehydration is more disturbing,” said Dr Irfan.  He said symptoms of dehydration could vary from mild, moderate to severe, while the symptoms of it include increase in thirst, dry tongue, generalised body weakness, feeling of dizziness, fainting, unconscious, increase in heart rate, lethargic, irritability, lack of sweat excretion and a reduced urine output.

He said the best treatment for diarrhoea was to drink lots of liquids and oral rehydration salts, properly mixed with clean water from a safe source, in addition to the medicines prescribed by the doctor.

When a child, who is more than 28 days of life, has three or more loose stools in a day, he should be given ORS, Dr Irfan said and added that the child should be taken to a doctor if the condition worsens or the diarrhoea persists for two to three days.

“We have noticed that the parents don’t usually give the children ORS even in severe conditions which could improve the condition of children and even save their lives before reaching the hospital”, he added.

To a question as what to do if ORS was not available, he said the child could be given a drink made with 6 level teaspoons of sugar and half teaspoon of salt dissolved in one litre or five cups (each cup should be of at least 200ml) full of clean drinking or boiled water.

“Be very careful to mix the correct amounts. Too much sugar can make the diarrhoea worse; too much salt can be extremely harmful to the child.

“Making the mixture a little too diluted (with more than one litre of clean water) is not harmful,” he added.

Dr Irfan said ORS was a special combination of dry salts that was mixed with safe clean drinking water that could help replace the fluids lost due to diarrhoea.