Today this “thought piece” was published on the BMJ Global Health Blog: Expanding ORS/zinc coverage for childhood diarrhoea: is institutionalising free distribution the answer? Authors: Simon Berry, Jane Berry and Rohit Ramchandani.
On the 20th anniversary of the recommendation that childhood diarrhoea should be treated with ORS and Zinc, the coverage rate is just 18%. Diarrhoea remains the second biggest infectious killer of under 5 children. This blog post builds on the experience of the authors in Zambia and draws on evidence from elsewhere to argue that a new strategy to increase ORS/Zinc coverage is required. It makes a case for a shift away from disparate interventions to improve coverage to a ‘systems change’ approach which would institutionalise the free distribution of ORS and Zinc and argues that this would give a high return on investment if implemented alongside local manufacturing.
Your comments please! Either here or on the BMJ blog.
