Oral Rehydration Therapy, or ORT, is a simple, cheap, and effective treatment for diarrhea caused by, e.g., cholera. According to The Lancet (1978), ORT is "potentially the most important medical discovery of the 20th century". Jump to: navigation, search Diarrhea (AmE) or diarrhoea (CwE) is a condition in which the sufferer has frequent and watery or loose bowel movements (from the ancient Greek word διαρροή = leakage; lit. ... Jump to: navigation, search Cholera (also called Asiatic cholera) is an infectious disease, caused by bacteria that are typically ingested by drinking water that is contaminated by improper sanitation, or by eating improperly cooked fish, especially shellfish. ... The Lancet is a British medical journal, published weekly by the Lancet Publishing Group, part of Reed Elsevier. ...

Various diseases cause damage to the intestine, allowing water to flow from the blood into the intestine, depleting the body of both fluid and electrolytes. Simply drinking water is ineffective, so the standard treatment is to restore fluids intravenously. This requires trained personnel and materials which are not sufficiently available in the Third World. However, it was discovered that the body can absorb a simple solution containing both sugar and salt. The dry ingredients can be mixed and packaged, and then the solution can be prepared and delivered by people with minimal training. Jump to: navigation, search The intestine is the portion of the alimentary canal extending from the stomach to the anus and, in humans and mammals, consists of two segments, the small intestine and the large intestine. ... An electrolyte is a substance which dissociates free ions when dissolved (or molten), to produce an electrically conductive medium. ... An intravenous drip in a hospital Intravenous therapy or IV therapy is the administration of liquid substances directly into a vein. ... For the Jamaican reggae band, see Third World (band). ... Dissolving table salt in water In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture of one or more substances (the solutes) dissolved in another substance (the solvent). ...

History

ORT was developed in the late 1960s by researchers in India and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), for the treatment of cholera. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 provoked a public health emergency in the refugee camps set up to house those fleeing the violence. With cholera spreading rapidly and death rates rising, the head of a medical centre in one of the camps instructed his staff to distribute Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS). In the refugee camps where ORS was being used the death rate was only 3%, compared to 20–30% in those camps using only intravenous fluid therapy. Jump to: navigation, search The 1960s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. ...

Between 1980 and 2000, ORT decreased the number of children under five dying of diarrhea from 4.6 million worldwide to 1.8 million—a 60% reduction. Jump to: navigation, search 1980 (MCMLXXX) is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year 2000. ...

In 2002, Drs. Norbert Hirschhorn, Dilip Mahalanabis, David R. Nalin, and Nathaniel F. Pierce were awarded the first Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research, in recognition of their work in developing ORT. Jump to: navigation, search 2002(MMII) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Treatment

One standard remedy is the WHO/UNICEF glucose-based Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) solution. WHO/UNICEF ORS solution contains Who can refer to: WHO, World Health Organization The Who, a British rock band The Guess Who, a Canadian rock band who (pronoun), an English language interrogative pronoun. ... UNICEF logo The United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946. ...

• 75 mEq/l of sodium and
• 75 mmol/l of glucose,
• 65 mEq/l chloride,
• 20 mEq/l potassium,
• 10 mEq/l citrate,

and has a total osmolarity of 245 mOsm/l. Jump to: navigation, search General Name, Symbol, Number sodium, Na, 11 Chemical series alkali metals Group, Period, Block 1, 3, s Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 22. ... Jump to: navigation, search Glucose (Glc), a simple monosaccharide sugar, is one of the most important carbohydrates and is used as a source of energy in animals and plants. ... Jump to: navigation, search The chloride ion is formed when the element chlorine picks up one electron to form the anion (negatively charged ion) Cl−. The salts of hydrochloric acid HCl contain chloride ions and are also called chlorides. ... Jump to: navigation, search General Name, Symbol, Number potassium, K, 19 Chemical series alkali metals Group, Period, Block 1, 4, s Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 39. ... Jump to: navigation, search The citrate ion can be written C3H5O(COO)33-, that is, citric acid minus three hydrogen ions. ... Osmolality, in biology and chemistry, is a measure of moles of solute per kg of water. ...

An inexpensive home-made solution consists of

• 1 litre of water, mixed with
• 8 teaspoons of sugar,
• 1 teaspoon of table salt.

A half cup of orange juice or half of a mashed banana can be added to each liter to add potassium and improve taste. The litre (spelled liter in American English) is a unit of volume. ... When used as a quantity, such as in a recipe, a teaspoon is the name of several units of measuring volume used primarily in cooking. ... Edible salt is a mineral, one of the few rocks people eat. ...

If commercial solutions are used, true rehydration solutions should be used and sports drinks should be avoided (especially in younger children) as these solutions contain too much sugar and not enough electrolytes. A sports drink is a beverage which is supposed to rehydrate athletes, as well as restoring electrolytes, sugar, and other nutrients. ...

External links

• Rehydration Project
• Johns Hopkins Public Health, Spring 2003
• "Reducing deaths from diarrhoea through oral rehydration therapy", Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2000, 78 (10)
• Rainbow Pediatrics Knowledgebase: The Oral Rehydration Therapy