Bulletin of the World Health Organization
Volume 90, Number 9, September 2012, 633-712
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/90/9/en/index.html

EDITORIALS
Bridging the gap from knowledge to delivery in the control of childhood diarrhoea
Sheila Isanaka, Greg Elder, Myrto Schaefer, Brigitte Vasset, Emmanuel Baron & Rebecca F Grais
doi: 10.2471/BLT.12.109504

Extract
Despite its low profile on the child survival agenda, diarrhoea is the second leading killer of children under 5 years of age and accounts for 10% of child deaths every year.1 But although diarrhoeal disease is preventable and can be managed with low-cost interventions, progress in reducing its incidence in children has been slow in recent years.2 In 2009, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) jointly published Diarrhoea: why children are still dying and what can be done, a report intended to raise awareness of the issue and to lay out a comprehensive plan of action for reducing the incidence of childhood diarrhoea and its associated mortality.3 In June 2012, UNICEF issued another call to action in Pneumonia and diarrhoea: tackling the deadliest diseases for the world’s poorest children and urged a refocusing of efforts to reduce preventable deaths caused by diarrhoea.4

This most recent UNICEF report underscores the need to intensify global commitment and funding for the fight against childhood diarrhoea and argues that scaling up key interventions among the poorest children would save lives. Key preventive interventions include an improved water supply and the promotion of community-wide sanitation and hand washing with soap, as well as vaccination against rotavirus infection and measles, promotion of breastfeeding and vitamin A supplementation.3 Key therapeutic interventions for children with diarrhoea include continued feeding, the use of zinc tablets and fluid replacement therapy with low-osmolarity oral rehydration salts (ORS)…