The news comes from U.S. researchers who reviewed data collected from the Global Burden of Disease study. The Global Burden of Disease Study is a comprehensive regional and global research program of disease burden that assesses mortality and disability from major diseases, injuries, and risk factors. The study stems from a collaboration of over 1,800 researchers from 127 countries.
The new analysis reveals that deaths from diarrhea have dropped by just over 20 percent overall; although reductions were higher with children, coming in at around one-third (34 percent). Of greatest significance are the reductions in Nigeria and India, where over a third (42 percent) of the total deaths happen.
The reasons for the reduction are attributable to better access to clean water and sanitation, as well as the application of new vaccines. While the news is welcomed the report strikes a note of caution. It remains that diarrhea is still the fourth-biggest killer of children globally. Here almost 500,000 a year dying before their fifth birthday. For health campaigners, there remains considerable more work to be done. This is in relation to 2015 seeing 2.39 billion episodes of diarrhea of which around half (957.5 million) involved children.
As lead researcher Dr Ali Mokdad, who works at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington tells The Guardian: “Diarrheal diseases disproportionately affect young children. Despite some promising reductions in mortality, the devastating impact of these diseases cannot be overlooked.”
The analysis is published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, under the title “Estimates of global, regional, and national morbidity, mortality, and aetiologies of diarrhoeal diseases: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015.”
