Diarrhoea continues to be the biggest cause of deaths in infants, according to data published by the scientific affairs at Sanofi South Africa, which show that 19% of deaths of children under the age of five can be attributed to the health condition.
The data show that deaths related to diarrhoea on the continent stand at 46% while global figures show a 9.2% infant death rate.
Momeena Omarjee, Consumer Healthcare country head, said one of the main reasons for the illness is because under-privileged children in South Africa do not have access to clean water.
“They also experience limited access to health and nutrition services. For example in KwaZulu-Natal, there are outbreaks of diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases due to the recent floods,” said Omarjee.
“Sanofi has therefore embarked on an ambitious campaign in partnership with a non-profit organisation, Save the Children South Africa, to assist in these areas and to positively impact over 2-million lives through hygiene education and access to water.”
Sanofi said campaigns to educate communities on healthy hygiene habits will be rolled out and conducted through early childhood development (ECD) centres, schools and child health awareness days. These will be spearheaded by ECD workers and community healthcare workers.
Symptoms that dehydration might be developing include blood in the stool, severe and worsening cramps, dry mouth, sunken fontanelle (soft spot on the top, back, and sides of your baby’s head), sunken eyes, absence of tears, unusually fast heart rate or fast breathing, and decrease in the number of wet nappies.
Omarjee said babies younger than six months are often at risk of dehydration, because their bodies have not developed to a point where they can handle the significant loss of fluid caused by vomiting or a runny stomach, which results in dehydration.
“If your child has diarrhoea and is refusing to take medicine or vomits up anything you’ve tried to give them, this is a serious situation, because they may become dehydrated. Severe dehydration can lead to hospitalisation and possibly death,” said Omarjee.
Diarrhoea can be prevented by breastfeeding, a clean and safe water supply, appropriate hand-washing and good sanitation.
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