The knowledge that saves
When babies and toddles get diarrhea, worried mothers who know no better may deprive them of water on the grounds that too much fluid is the problem. The dehydration that results kills more than four million children every year. But if water is forced-fed to the babies in the same quantity as it is lost from the bowels, most will recover, if the water is frist boiled and a little sugar and salt added, nearly all will get better. Measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, rubella and tetanus can be virtually eliminated with immunization. Yet every week these and other common viral and bacterial infections of childhood, now rare in economically developed societies, kill almost 100,000 Third World children. About two thirds of infantile deaths are preventable at a relatively small cost. More difficult is educating mothers in the relatively simple ways to save their babies.