Oral rehydration salts (ORS) and zinc market update
Insights on supply and demand of oral rehydration salts and zinc, a low-cost and effective solution to treat childhood diarrhoea.
Highlights
Oral rehydration salts (ORS) and zinc are low-cost treatments for childhood diarrhoea. They reduce symptom severity and duration as well as the risk of recurrence in the short-term and could prevent an estimated 525,000 under-five children from dying of the disease each year. However, despite product availability, demand through UNICEF remains low.
This update provides information on supply and demand for ORS and zinc for 2019-2025.
Countries’ health systems should improve access, demand and availability to reduce avoidable U5 under-five mortality, especially where disease burden is highest; and scale-up and adopt World Health Organization treatment guidelines to use ORS and zinc and include products into national essential medicine lists.
