It’s a disease you do not hear a lot about in the US and hope you never do. Few children in this country die from diarrheal disease, yet is an illness with staggering statistics worldwide.
Consider this, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that diarrhea kills 2,195 children every day. This is more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. In fact, one in nine child deaths worldwide are attributable to diarrheal diseases, making it the second leading cause of death among children under the age of five.
Here’s how this killer operates.
Diarrhea depletes the body of fluids resulting in profound dehydration. For children who survive, diarrhea can also have a detrimental impact on their growth and cognitive development.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Most diarrheal deaths are preventable using simple, low-cost interventions. The standard treatment is Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) which stabilize and re-hydrate a weakened person.
Here’s a picture of what an ORS pack looks like.
MAP delivers thousands of these packs each year to health care providers around the world who are on the front lines in the fight to save children.
Stay tuned this week as we share the story of a family saved by Oral Rehydration Salts from MAP. You can help save a life today with a gift of Oral Rehydration Salts from the MAP Gift Catalog.
The health of children around the world is important to all of us at MAP. We hope it is important to you too. Thank you for your ongoing support.