Lifesavers · No. 05
Oral rehydration therapy
A mixture of water, salt and sugar that costs pennies has saved more than 70 million children from dying of dehydration.
An estimate; the true figure cannot be known exactly, but is in the tens of millions.
How it saves lives
Diarrhoea kills by draining the body of water and salts until the organs fail. For a long time the only fix was an intravenous drip, which needs a clinic and staff. The discovery was that adding a little glucose lets the gut absorb water and salt together even during severe illness, so a drink mixed at home can rescue a child a drip once did.
The story
During a cholera outbreak in crowded refugee camps in 1971, with IV fluids running out, doctors tried giving patients a simple sugar-and-salt solution to drink. Death rates fell dramatically. The recipe was almost too simple to believe, which is partly why it took years to spread. Today packets of oral rehydration salts sit in clinics and homes across the world, and The Lancet once called the idea the most important medical advance of the century.
From the record
the number of children saved from 1982 until 2019 by ORT could be more than 70 million
From the record
the most important medical advance of the 20th century
Asked often
How many lives has oral rehydration therapy saved?
Our World in Data estimates that oral rehydration therapy saved more than 70 million children between 1982 and 2019 by treating the dehydration caused by diarrhoea.
What is in oral rehydration solution?
It is a precise mix of clean water, salt and sugar (glucose). The glucose is the key: it lets the gut absorb water and salt together even during severe diarrhoea.
The next one is being invented now.
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