DIARRHEA: Lesson 2

Dija had had five children, but only two were living because three of them had died with diarrhea. They had had runny stools and their bodies had become weak and dehydrated`, The grandmother told Dija not to nurse them when they had diarrhea but give them a certain native medicine. Nevertheless, three of them had died.

One day Kubili, a sister of Dija, came home from the hospital for holiday. She found one child with diarrhea. She saw how the people went behind the house in the bush to defecate. She told Dija how small germs, too small to be seen with our eyes alone, are in the stools of people. When someone with diarrhea defecates on the ground, flies and animals walk over it and carry these germs into the compound. Children playing on the ground and then putting their hands in their mouths make way for the germs to enter their bodies and grow. This is why the children often have diarrhea she told Dija. Kubili said defecating and urinating in a latrine helps prevent these germs from spreading. Or if one is out in the bush, feces should be buried so that flies and animals cannot spread the germs Hands should be washed after defecating and before eating Keep food covered.

Kubili looked at the child with diarrhea and saw how dehydrated and weak his body was becoming. She told Dija how to prepare salt-sugar mixture when the children have diarrhea. Use a peanut oil bottle or a treetop bottle, wash and scald with boiling water. Fill the bottle with boiled water, add five teaspoons of sugar (or five sugar cubes) and a three finger pinch of salt. Give a cooled teaspoonful of this solution to one with diarrhea a little at a time until the diarrhea stops. Continue nursing if child is still on the breast. If there is fever or if the diarrhea has not stopped within two days, take the child to the dispensary immediately. "This sugar-salt mixture is helpful for older children and adults as well when they have diarrhea", she concluded

Dija's children had used two bottles of this mixture before they began to get better.

When her husband returned, Dija told him the things Kubili had taught her. They decided to dig a latrine in their compound. They began keeping their food covered and also washed their hands after defecating and before eating. After that they noticed they did not have a lot of diarrhea as in the past. If a child did get it, it did not trouble them as much for they started right away to give him sugar-salt mixture Dija and her husband were grateful to Kubili for this health teaching she had brought to them.

Questions:

1. What had caused Dija's children to die?

2. Where did they get this?

3. How can it be prevented?

4 How does one prepare diarrhea medicine at home?