Though not an endemic problem in the U.S., diarrhea remains a common life-threatening event in third-world countries, killing about 1.4 million children under the age of five every year. But there are preventive measures and treatments that can reduce this number, and a new study by Christa Fischer Walker of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health used a computer program to model how some of these methods can impact diarrhea incidence in 68 target countries. Among the list of simple and cheap preventive measures was: breastfeeding, vitamin A supplements, hand-washing with soap, improved sanitation, improved drinking water, better water treatment at home, use of the new rotavirus vaccination and acute treatment with antibiotics, oral rehydration salts and zinc. Assuming a gradual implementation of these preventive measures, the researchers looked at two scenarios: a “realizable” approach, which was more modest, and a “universal” approach that is aggressive and designed to help as many children as possible. In the first scenario, annual diarrhea deaths decreased by 78 percent from 1.39 million in 2010 to 334,000 in 2015. This compared to a 92 percent reduction (less than 115,000 fatalities) with the more aggressive plan.
India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and Afghanistan would stand to benefit the most, with over half of the lives saved originating in one of these countries.
These interventions could be accomplished safely with relatively little expense, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. “When you’re talking about over a million lives a year, the cost doesn’t seem to be such a big factor. It reminds me of another inexpensive methodology that has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of children in underdeveloped nations: using small amounts of DDT sprayed indoors to kill or repel the mosquitoes responsible for spreading malaria."