WHO launches cheaper and better ORS to battle killer diarrhoea.
New Delhi, June 2 (ANI)

As The World Health Organisation on Wednesday launched a cheaper and better version of Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS), a crucial life saver for millions of children suffering from diarrhoea.

The WHO-prescribed formula is till date the most successful formula in tackling diarrhoea, the second largest killer of children under five.

Introduced in 1971 at a war camp, ORS has for three decades been the most widely-used in the developing world, where ill-equipped health-centers and time lag in reaching for help often prove fatal for children.

The new formula has lower osomolarity, that is, reduced concentration of glucose and sodium that helps not just supplement but also control fluid loss, greatly reducing the need for intravenous therapy.

Officals say its biggest advantage is that children can be treated at home, a boon for poverty-stricken families who survive at less than a dollar a day.

In clinical trials, children treated with reduced-osmolarity ORS pass less stools and the illness fades faster.

"The difference between the previous ORS (Oral Rehydration Salts) and the new ORS is that this has less osmolarity than the previous one. The previous one had 311 mili osmos per litre where as this one, the new ORS has 245 mili osmos. The research by the WHO (World Health Organisation) has found out that this is more effective than the previous one. And this one is less expensive than the previous one," Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told a news conference at the launch ceremony here.

It is estimated that acute noncholera diaorrhoea in children causes 1.5 million to 2.5 million deaths per year.

WHO estimates, the dangerous but highly-curable disease claims the lives of close to 600,000 children, mostly in urban slums where thousands are crammed into make-shift shanties.

Indian slums are a chaotic warren of shops, factories and homes where people cook, eat, sleep and bathe in areas not measuring more than a 6 by 4 feet.

The fly-infested lanes and garbage dumps of India's slums have not only provided a backdrop for books and movies, but are also a tourist curiosity on the map of visitors, including Prince Charles, who wanted to see a slice of the "real India".