The clinical epidemiology of hypernatraemia in diarrhoea during treatment with oral rehydration in Egypt
1988
Yousuf, A. | Fayyad, I.M. | Ebrahim, G.J.
Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) for diarrhoea, acclaimed as a major therapeutic advance, is currently estimated to be saving one million lives of children each year. It is being actively promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is one of the main pillars of the Child Survival Revolution advocated by the United Nations Children's Fund. WHO favoured a universal solution with a sodium content of 90 mmol/l (ORS 90) for mounting a global programme. Physicians in the more developed countries have tended to be concerned at this policy for three reasons. Infant diarrhoea stools contain less sodium than those of adults suffering from cholera in whom ORT was first developed. The infant is less able to deal with a sodium load and has a higher requirement of water. Most mortality in children suffering from diarrhoea is due to hypernatraemia. Our study was designed to measure the prevalence of hypernatraemia in children attending a busy pediatric hospital in Cairo for diarrhoea and to identify the contributory factors.
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