New Delhi: To take ahead the fight against dehydration and diarrhoea with the basic drink, the World Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) Day is observed on July 29. The day highlights the importance of educating people about the benefits and usage of ORS.
History and Significance
The Oral Rehydration Solution was discovered by an Indian paediatrician Dr Dilip Mahalanabis, who was voluntarily serving in the refugee camp of Bongaon, West Bengal during the war of 1971. Later on, World ORS Day was initiated by the Indian Academy Of Pediatrics (IAP) in 2001 with an aim to raise awareness and lower cases of child deaths caused by diarrhoea and dehydration. This day highlights the critical role being played by ORS for helping save the lives of many children.
What is ORS
ORS plays a very significant role in improving and curing conditions such as diarrhoea and dehydration. Both of these conditions are often acute and common due to many reasons. The ORS helps prepare a solution that is abundant in glucose-electrolytes. ORS helps by providing the necessary amounts of glucose, sodium, and other electrolytes.
The ORS is an oral fluid whose composition was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to maximise intestinal absorption of fluid and electrolytes. ORS has been used for the correction of dehydration and reduction of mortality with diarrheal disease. Unaffected by the pathological processes that increase mucosal secretion, ORS stimulates the jejunal glucose–sodium cotransporters to drag fluid across the intestinal mucosa increasing the expansion of the extracellular fluid compartment without changing serum osmolarity.
Indian Academy Of Pediatrics On ORS
According to the Indian Academy Of Pediatrics, diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death after pneumonia among children below 5 years of age in India. The 4th National Family Health Survey reported that 9.2 per cent of under-5 children had diarrhoea during the preceding two weeks. The situation remained the same even after a decade, as the incidence was 9 per cent in 2005. Death from diarrhoea is mainly from dehydration and its complications.
"Appropriate rehydration therapy remains the cornerstone in management. Advances in molecular technology have helped to better understand the etiology and pathophysiology of diarrhea. It helped to conceptualise and improve oral rehydration therapy," the IAP said.
When ORS can be consumed
Diarrhoea, dehydration and vomiting are the three basic health hazards when intake of ORS can be useful. Diarrhoea can cause dehydration and significantly lower energy levels. Consuming ORS can help improve these symptoms whereas dehydration can occur due to heat strokes or lack of proper diet and water consumption. ORS helps in rehydrating us. And vomiting similar to diarrhoea can cause a fall in water and energy levels in the body. ORS can help boost energy as these conditions affect our appetite as well.
WHO’s global diarrheal diseases control program
According to the WHO, diary disease is the second leading cause of death in children under 5 years old. Diarrhoea is the third leading cause of childhood mortality in India. Diarrhoea which is frequently caused by poor sanitation and hygiene can have serious, even deadly results. Typical result of diarrhoea-related dehydration, it particularly affects infants, children and old people
The WHO launched a global diarrheal disease control program with oral rehydration therapy (ORT) as its core strategy in 1978. Being concerned with hypernatremia, especially in children having non-cholera diarrhoea, a single low osmolar ORS (LORS) formulation was recommended as a universal solution by WHO and UNICEF in a joint statement in which LORS was recommended as safe and effective to correct dehydration in diarrhoea, including cholera in adults as well as children. The Government of India followed the lead and approved the same composition of LORS as a single rehydration solution.
Experts View
Renowned paediatrician Dr Sangeeta Yadav said that globally nearly 1.7 billion children less than 5 years of age have diarrhea every year and around 5,25,000 children die every year. Worldwide, diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children less than 5 years of age. In India, it is the third leading cause of childhood deaths and accounts for 13 per cent of all deaths per year in children under 5 years of age.
"Most of the children die due to severe dehydration and fluid loss in diarrhoea. Dehydration caused by diarrhoea can be prevented and effectively treated by giving ORS. This has been the most effective treatment since the early 1980," said Yadav.
