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Home Resources Photo Gallery

ORT Corners in Kenya

Sep 01, 2010
Hope Randall

Photo Gallery

A room with benches, plastic containers, and oral rehydration solution (ORS): these are the simple tools that furnish a typical oral rehydration therapy (ORT) corner. In the 1980's, this highly effective, low-cost intervention tremendously impacted child mortality, but as other global health priorities competed for attention, ORT corners fell into disrepair or disappeared completely.

 

In Western Province, Kenya, that picture is changing. Since 2009, PATH has helped established 37 ORT corners, and health workers already note a sharp decrease in the number of children who are admitted to pediatric wards for severe dehydration. With ORT corner treatment, children who may have spent days in the hospital are released within a matter of hours. Click through the photos to see this lifesaving intervention in action.

 

The World Health Organization recommends oral rehydration solution and zinc as the cornerstone treatment of diarrheal disease. Learn about a new effort to increase access to both tools. 

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Outside a makeshift ORT corner
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Summary

Diarrheal disease takes a deadly toll in Bungoma District. This hospital didn't have time to wait for the ORT corner facility to be added to the hospital. They added a makeshift extension to serve as a temporary ORT corner so they could continue to treat dehydrated patients while the permanent space was built.

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ORT corner supplies
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Summary

Records from Webuye District Hospital show a steady decrease in the number of patients admitted for severe dehydration after the installation of their ORT corner.

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Nurse instructs mother about ORS
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Summary

While treating their children at the ORT corner, mothers also are empowered through education on how to recognize warning signs of dehydration, when to take the child to the hospital, and how to prevent diarrhea.

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Mother spoonfeeds ORS to daughter
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Summary

At the Kakamega Provincial General Hospital's ORT corner, a mother spoonfeeds ORS to her daughter.

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Delivery of hot plates
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Summary

PATH staff deliver hot plates for sterilizing water and cooking porridge to a health care worker at a hospital in Bungoma District. Diarrhea and malnutrition are a vicious cycle that can have a negative long-term impact on a child's physical and cognitive development. A healthy meal is important for a child's recovery, in addition to rehydration.

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A severely dehydrated patient
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Summary

In the Kimilili hospital ward in Western Province, Kenya, Alfred Ochola, primary health care coordinator for PATH's Enhanced Diarrheal Disease Control Initiative, examines a severely dehydrated child. It is her fifth day receiving expensive IV fluids, but if she had been treated with ORS at the first sign of dehydration, she could have gone home healthy within a matter hours.

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Webuye District Hospital ORT corner
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Summary

Health care workers continually advocate for ORT corner coverage. An ORT corner allows mothers to participate in the treatment of their children while staff attend to numerous other patients.

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Mother and nurse with ORT corner supplies
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Summary

ORT corners are furnished with a simple set of supplies: a comfortable bench, plastic containers, ORS, zinc, and a hot plate for sterilizing water and cooking porridge.

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A mother administers ORS
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Summary

This severely dehydrated child is now on the mend. Having been treated with IV infusions for five days, she is now receiving ORS.

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Proud health care workers of Webuye District Hospital
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Treatment supplies
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Mothers with children in the ORT corner
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Featured Content
Feb 05, 2019
Policy spotlight: improved access to ORS and zinc
We're backing a new petition to improve access to ORS and zinc.

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Sep 12, 2012
ORS and zinc: overcoming hurdles to access in Zambia
 

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