Treatment of acute diarrhoea with wide use of ORS packets or sugar salt solution in a rural community

Abstract

An oral rehydration therapy program was introduced in a rural community in India. During the initial 20 months (phase 1), packeted oral rehydration solution (ORS) was promoted and made available through the dispensary and also through 5 village health workers for treatment of all diarrheal illness, regardless of the severity. In the subsequent 11 months (phase 2), the supply of ORS packets was restricted only to cases of obvious dehydration when treatment was sought at the local dispensary. Preparation and correct use of the sugar-salt solution for early treatment of diarrhea were explained to all of the mothers in the villages. The diarrheal episodes and use of ORS were monitored through household visits by data collectors throughout the 31-month period. In phase 1, ORS packets were used in 68.6% of the diarrheal episodes whereas in phase 2, sugar-salt solution was used for 79.3% of the episodes. The mean intake (in liters)/diarrheal episodes was higher (p0.05) for sugar-salt (1.9 +or- 1.6) as compared to the ORS solutions prepared from packets (1.2 +or- 0.7). The percentage of samples with sodium concentration 120mE q/1 was 4.9% with ORS packets and 20% with sugar and salt (0.05). The diarrheal deaths/100 episodes were 0.73 (ORS packets phase) and 0.50 (sugar-salt phase), respectively (p0.05). author's modified. B D Malhotra,K Ramachandran,M K Bhan,N K Arora,Nita Bhandari,O P Ghai,Vikram Khoshoo