Oral Rehydration Salts - Current WHO Formula
A new formula for oral rehydration salts (ORS), has been released by the World Health Organization. The new formula ORS, a sodium and glucose solution. is widely used to treat children with acute diarrhoea. Since WHO adopted ORS in 1978 as its primary tool to fight diarrhoea, the mortality rate for children suffering from acute diarrhoea has fallen from 5 million to 1.3 million deaths annually.The new improved formula is the result of extensive research sponsored by WHO's Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The latest study was conducted in five developing countries among children from one month to two years old with acute diarrhoea and dehydration.The study's findings suggest that using the low-sodium, low-glucose ORS formulation reduces the need for intravenous fluids by 33 percent. The effect of this reduction could result in fewer children requiring hospitalization, fewer secondary infections, a diminished need to handle blood with its potentially dangerous consequences, and lower health care costs.Reduced osmolarityFor more than 25 years, WHO and UNICEF have recommended a single formulation of glucose-based oral rehydration salts to prevent or treat dehydration from diarrhoea irrespective of the cause or age group affected.  It has contributed substantially to the dramatic global reduction in mortality from diarrhoeal disease during the period. The old formula:Sodium Chloride 3.5 gPotassium Chloride 1.5 gTrisodium Citrate, dihydrate 2.9 gGlucose Anhydrous 20.0 gNew Formula:Reduced osmolarity ORS  grams/litre 	Reduced osmolarity ORS  mmol/litreSodium chloride  2.6Sodium  75Glucose, anhydrous  13.5Chloride  65Potassium chloride  1.5Glucose, anhydrous  75Trisodium citrate dihydrate  2.9Potassium  20 	 	Citrate  10Total Weight  20.5Total Osmolarity  245