The man who helped save 50 million lives

Guest Sun Aug 03, 2014 3:22 pm

A solution of sugar, salts and water, many of which can be found in a kitchen cupboard, can be all it takes to save a child's life - and it has saved an estimated 50 million people. But finding the right balance was crucial - and Dr Norbert Hirschhorn played a key part.
After two days suffering from diarrhoea the three-month-old Egyptian boy was too weak even to hold his head up to suckle at his mother's breast.
Doctors feared the worst when he was brought to a rehydration centre in Alexandria: severe diarrhoea is a major killer in the developing world.
But little more than four hours later he was well enough to resume breastfeeding - all thanks to a cheap solution of sugars and salts.
Dr Hirschhorn says the transformation oral rehydration therapy brings is incredible.
"You come into a room and the child - or an adult - is near death. They have sunken eyes. they're breathing very rapidly - their skin and their fingernails are bluish - and in children the soft spot on the top of their head is sunken."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28564607