Diarrhoeal diseases account for nearly 2 million deaths a year among children under five, making them the second most common cause of child death worldwide. For more than two decades, oral rehydration therapy (ORT) has been the cornerstone of treatment programmes for childhood diarrhoeal diseases. Recommendations on its use have changed over time, however, and there is thus a relative lack of comparable treatment data from the early to mid-1990s. Though limited, the data indicate that coverage of treatment for children under five appears to have improved significantly across the developing world (excluding China) over the past decade, including in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

But coverage still remains too low.