Diarrhea is the second leading killer of young children globally after pneumonia, according to a newly released international study.The study found that approximately one in five children under the age of two suffer from moderate-to-severe diarrhea (MSD) each year, which increased children’s risk of death 8.5-fold and lead to stunted growth over a two-month follow-up period.
The Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS) is the largest ever conducted on diarrhoeal diseases in developing countries enrolling more than 20,000 children from seven sites across the Asia and Africa.
The GEMS study in Bangladesh was conducted in Mirzapur of Tangail by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).
The study, coordinated by the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine’s Centre for Vaccine Development, confirmed rotavirus – for which a vaccine already exists – as the leading cause of diarrhoeal diseases among infants and identified other top causes for which additional research is urgently needed, an ICDDR,B press release said on Tuesday.
The study suggested that longer-term monitoring and care of children with diarrhoeal diseases could reduce mortality and developmental delays.
Children with MSD grew significantly less in height in the two months following the diarrheal episode when compared with control children without diarrhea, and were 8.5 times more likely to die over the course of the two-month follow-up period.
About 61 percent of deaths occurred more than a week after the initial diarrhoeal episode, with 56 percent of deaths happening after families had returned home from a healthcare facility, the study said.
“Better information is critical to changing the way we fight diarrhoeal diseases,” said Dr Abu Faruque, principal investigator at the Bangladesh trial site. “GEMS show us clearly how we can target our approach and where we need to invest our resources to make a difference.”
“The GEMS findings help set priorities for investments that could greatly reduce the burden of childhood diarrheal diseases,” said Dr Thomas Brewer, Deputy Director of the Enteric and Diarrheal Diseases team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which funded the study.
He said vaccines and treatments currently available can save thousands of children right now, but targeted research to develop new tools to combat severe diarrhea could save many more lives in the future. UNB
