ICROSS extends diarrhoea prevention September 2011

ICROSS steps up diarrhoea control for young children

Children during drought are very vulnerable to dehydration and infections. one of the most serious medical problems are water borne diseases. We have been working on preventing diarrhoeal infection since the early 1980s http://rehydrate.org/dd/dd39.htm#page8 We learned from our early work in preventing water borne disease that "The success of Interventions relating to practical hygiene is due to the fact that many of our own community health workers are Maasai and Samburu warriors who are part of the community and who have combined what they see as 'modernism' with traditional practices.

There is an important place for building on cultural perceptions and ideas and those beliefs are essential in building and designing any community health initiative. As one of our health workers said: 'At the end of the day, a mother will listen to her mother's advice rather than to a stranger's. She'll draw on her experience from her world, not from ideas given her in another language.' Our work has grown over the three decades to include child survival in traditional communities.

During the current drought ICROSS community health teams are working in homes an villages to make sure we identify children who are loosing weight early enough to intervene. This is possible by community owned hygiene and sanitation projects. You can help us reach these children to prevent severe malnutrition by getting directly involved and donating online http://www.icross-africa.net/ to our diarrhoea prevention programme. Please help our drought relief programme by donating or guying something to help out mother and child health work in Africa on http://www.icross-africa.net/#!__store/mothercare

your support is essential in order for ICROSS to continue its vital work. at a time when the whole world has problems , it is easy for us to forget those who are most in need. Please help today and visit http://www.icross-africa.net/#!__store

Further information
More about ICROSS diarrhoeal work can be found on http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673696023094 and http://adc.bmj.com/content/81/4/337.abstract and http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/284/2/152.short http://mic.sgmjournals.org/content/155/4/1310.short http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2802%2907427-5/fulltext and also http://myanmar.digitaljournals.org/index.php/MJCMP/article/view/656/642 http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=11216015



Further reading



Conroy RM, Meegan ME, Joyce T, McGuigan K, Barnes J. Solar

disinfection of drinking water protects against cholera in children

under 6 years of age. Arch Dis Child 2001;85(4):293-5.



Meegan M, Morley DC. Growth monitoring: family participation:

effective community development. Trop Doct 1999;29(1):23-7.



Conroy RM, Meegan ME, Joyce T, McGuigan K, Barnes J. Solar

disinfection of water reduces diarrhoeal disease: an update. Arch Dis

Child 1999;81(4):337-8.



Meegan M, Morley DC, Brown R. Child weighing by the unschooled: a

report of a controlled study of growth monitoring over 12 months of

Maasai children using direct recording scales. Trans R Soc Trop Med

Hyg 1994;88(6):635-7.


Conroy RM, Meegan ME. Dwindling donor aid for health programmes in

developing countries. Lancet 1994;343(8907):1228-9.


Meegan MK. Rethinking famine relief. Lancet 1992;340(8830):1293-4.



Meegan M, McCormick J. Prevention of disease in the poor world.

Lancet 1988;2(8603):152-3.

Meegan M. Starvation and suffering. Lancet 1983;2(8365-66):1506.


Meegan M. The reality of starvation and disease. Lancet 1981;1

(8212):146.

In preparation

Solar disinfection of drinking water (SODIS) in the prevention of dysentery in Kenyan children aged under 5 years, Environmental Science and Technology Journal, Oct 2011

Martella du Preez1, Ronan M. Conroy2, Sophie Ligondo3, James Hennessy3, Michael Elroy-Meegan3, Allan Soita3, Kevin G. McGuigan4