Oral rehydration therapy in Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe national campaign for home treatment of diarrhoea with sugar-and-salt solution (SSS), introduced in 1980, has reduced the number of dehydrated children presenting for treatment. Some key aspects of this successful programme are outlined, namely choosing a home-made rehydration solution in preference to satchets, getting the support of all health workers (including pharmacists, traditional midwives and village health workers), mobilising effective implementation at district level, and ensuring acceptance by the community. The paper describes how community acceptance was facilitated by avoiding misconceptions about the need for medicine at every visit to the health service, about SSS as a treatment only for rural people, about the method of action of SSS and about the use of suspect water.