Oral rehydration therapy
Terapia de rehidratación oral
- Date
- 1968-1971 · confidence high
- Place
- Cholera Research Laboratory, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Credited to
- David Nalin, Richard Cash and colleagues (Dhaka); Dilip Mahalanabis (Bangaon, 1971)
- People
- 👤 David Nalin1941–👤 Dilip Mahalanabis1934–2022👤 Richard Cash1960–
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A solution of water, salt and glucose drunk in sufficient quantity replaces the losses caused by cholera, because glucose carries sodium and water across the gut. During the 1971 war, Mahalanabis used it with refugees and cut mortality from 30% to under 4%.
There were earlier trials in Manila (Phillips, 1964) and Calcutta (Pierce, Hirschhorn); the decisive controlled trial was in Dhaka and Chittagong in 1968.
What it led to
- dramatic reduction in child mortality from diarrhoea
- WHO oral rehydration salts (1978)
- treatment without intravenous fluids in poor areas