Diarrheal Disease: Key Facts

Diarrheal Disease: Key Facts

Burden

• Diarrhea takes the lives of more than 4,000 children each day and 1.5 million every year. It is the second-leading killer of children under age 5 after acute respiratory infections like pneumonia.¹
• Diarrheal disease is a global killer. Its burden is greatest in the developing countries of Asia and Africa where access to clean water, sanitation, and urgent medical care may be limited. 

Rotavirus is the most common and deadly form of severe diarrhea.

• While nearly every child will contract rotavirus, most rotavirus deaths happen in poor countries where treatment for severe infections is often out of reach.
• Rotavirus-related diarrheal disease takes the lives of more than 500,000 children under 5 every year and is responsible for the hospitalization of millions more around the world.²

• More than 85 percent of rotavirus deaths occur in developing countries in Africa and Asia.³
• First-of-their-kind data from studies in Africa and Mexico recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrate the efficacy and impact of vaccination in significantly reducing severe rotavirus infections among children worldwide.
• These data informed a World Health Organization recommendation that all countries include rotavirus vaccines in their national immunization programs. The GAVI Alliance has committed to support rotavirus vaccine introduction in developing countries worldwide.
• Rotavirus vaccines have been introduced in more than 20 countries, primarily in the industrialized world, and are having a powerful impact on children’s health. In the US, rotavirus vaccination since 2006 has led to dramatic drops in rotavirus-related hospitalizations by as much as 80 percent.⁴

Nearly nine out of ten child deaths due to diarrhea could be prevented with solutions available today.

• Contaminated hands are a common way to spread illnesses – including pneumonia and diarrhea, which are the leading killers of children worldwide. About 3.5 million children in developing nations lose their lives to these preventable illnesses each year.⁵
• Handwashing with soap is a low-cost and highly effective way to protect children from the most common causes of child death – pneumonia and diarrheal disease.
• Poor hygiene, lack of access to sanitation and unsafe drinking water together are responsible for 88 percent of diarrheal disease infections.⁶
• The simple act of handwashing with soap is up to 40 percent effective in reducing diarrheal disease incidences.
• Point-of-use water treatment and safe storage can reduce diarrhea by 30 to 50 percent.⁷
• When implemented correctly, sanitation can reduce diarrheal disease by 36 percent.⁸
• Since the 1970s, ORS has saved an estimated 50 million lives.⁹
• Zinc is a critical new intervention for treating diarrhea. We can save lives with proven lifesaving prevention and treatment methods available today.