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Diarrhoea, a leading child killer disease in Ghana will now be treated with affordable and effective new Zinc tablets.

The disease which accounts for between 10 and 15 per cent of all child deaths in Ghana each year, according to medical experts, stunts child growth and causes pain to individuals and families.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is working hard to stop this disease in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Four, which aims at reducing child mortality by two-third by 2015.

Consequently, it has increased the supply and promotion of Zinc tablets in the country, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The GHS National Child Health Co-ordinator, Dr Isabella Sagoe-Moses, who made this known at the Princess Marie Louise Children’s Hospital in Accra, said the initiative was a public-private partnership in a new major step to tackle diarrhoea in Ghana.

She said the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation and UNICEF recommended Zinc tablets in combination with Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) as the best treatment for childhood diarrhoea based on years of extensive research.

According to the GHS co-ordinator, Zinc tablets would reduce the severity of diarrhoea, stop it faster and, if the full 10-day course was taken, provide protection for the child from future episodes of diarrhoea for up to three months.

According to the latest Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, about 20 per cent of children under five experienced an episode of diarrhoea during the two-week period prior to the survey.