CAUSE AND CONTROL OF FATAL, INFANTILE DIARRHEAL DISEASES.

Abstract

The United Nations Conference on the Application of Science and Technology for the Benefit of the Less Developed Areas is concerned with the practical means by which “science and technology can best serve the needs of the less developed countries.” The problem of fatal, infantile diarrheal diseases is being considered in this connection, because they are a major or principal cause of death in infancy and early childhood among the economically underprivileged populations of the world. According to Hardy and Schliessmann, consultants of the World Health Organization, the acute diarrheal diseases are estimated to account for about 5 million deaths of infants and children each year throughout the world. Among the economically more privileged populations, these diseases disappeared as an important cause of death only after the achievement of high living standards, which include improved nutrition, better housing supplied with safe, abundant water, sanitary disposal of excreta and facilities for proper refrigeration and storage of food, sanitary control of processing, storage and distribution of milk and other food products, control of feces-transmitting insects, increased availability of good medical care, and last but not least a markedly increased level of education.