- What is diarrhoea?
- How many people are affected?
- How is diarrhoea spread?
- Who is most at risk?
- How can diarrhoea be prevented and treated?
What is diarrhoea?
Diarrhoea is a symptom of gastrointestinal infection. It results in loose or liquid stools, passed more frequently than normal. Diarrhoea can be watery or passed with blood depending on the type of infection.
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How many people are affected?
Diarrhoea is very common where water quality and sanitation are poor. At any one time more than half the hospital beds in the developing world are occupied by patients suffering from diarrhoea. Each year there are around four billion cases of diarrhoea, and nearly 7% of deaths in developing countries are due to diarrhoeal diseases.
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How is diarrhoea spread?
There are many causes including the rotavirus, which particularly attacks children; bacterial infections such as dysentery and typhoid as well as infections such as giardia.
Diarrhoea is often spread through contaminated water, food or faecal matter. It causes a rapid loss of water and salt, and this becomes lethal if more than 10% of the body’s fluid is lost. Half of all deaths from diarrhoea are from acute diarrhoea (which occurs suddenly and lasts less than two weeks), and half from persistent diarrhoea. Large epidemics of diarrhoea can be caused by cholera.
Climate change looks set to bring more frequent and hard-hitting floods and droughts that could spread diarrhoea. Where there is inadequate sanitation, faecal matter in fields can contaminate water supplies during floods. During droughts, limited access to water may mean it is not possible to wash hands and keep up adequate personal and food hygiene, increasing the risks of infection spreading.
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Who is most at risk?
Children and other vulnerable people are most at risk. Diarrhoea is still killing 6,000 children every day, despite the existence of simple and cheap treatment.
Estimates suggest that diarrhoeal diseases account for nearly 20% of deaths among children under five worldwide. Children are particularly affected because of a vicious cycle of malnutrition that creates susceptibility to diarrhoea, which in turn worsens malnutrition. Most diarrhoea-related deaths in children are due to dehydration.
The malnutrition that accompanies diarrhoea puts millions of people at greater risk of death from other sickness. Malnutrition contributes to more than half of childhood deaths.
How can diarrhoea be prevented and treated?
Prevention measures include:
- Access to clean water
- Good sanitation to dispose of human waste
- Good personal hygiene
- Good food hygiene
- Health education on how diarrhoea is spread
- Exclusive breastfeeding so an infant only receives breast milk without any additional food or water
- Nutritional supplements which boost vitamin A and promote the intake of zinc.
Treatment measures include:
- Oral rehydration to prevent dehydration. Sugar and salt can be mixed with clean water to create a life-saving rehydration solution. Homemade fluids can be just as effective as oral rehydration salts as long as water, sugar and salt are combined in the correct proportions.
Last modified: 14/12/2010
