Literature review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 2

Literature review - Essay Example The initiative of UNICEF is to increase the availability of ORS to everyone around the world in a way people would purchase household materials from any other shop like Coca Cola, soap, razor blades or the like. Oral Rehydration Therapy was found at the outset of millions of deaths due to dehydration caused by Diarrhoea. Children are more vulnerable to die from this disease than adults because they get dehydrated fast. Malnutrition among children is the major cause of Diarrhoea. In developing nations around 2.2 million people (mostly children) lose their lives due to inadequate safe drinking water, poor sanitation and hygiene and overcrowding in their locale. Ninety percent of these children are under the age of five. Oral Rehydration Therapy is a dream solution to avert these millions of death through awareness, prevention, treatment and intervention strategies. The application of ORT gained momentum from the medical point of view when it was discovered that when sodium transport and glucose transport is combined in the small intestine, glucose hastens the absorption of solute and water content into the body potentially. This has been referred as one of the significant advancement of medical science in the treatment of diarrhoeal dehydration in this century.(Anon, Rehydration Project). Until the use of ORT was found the only way to treat diarrhoea was to assist IVT (intravenous therapy) by qualified medical staff in a medical clinic or hospital. Dehydration can now be brought under control with a simple solution of sugar, salt and water that can be administered through mouth by the parents in a child’s home. Oral Rehydration salt solution is used for children and adults with diarrhea if preliminary consumption of normal fluids does not stop dehydration. The ingredients of ORS in grams per litre are Sodium Chloride (2.6 gm/l), Anhydrous Glucose (13.5 gm/l),