Oral rehydration therapy: An epithelial transport success story

Oral rehydration therapy prevents death in acute watery diarrhoea except in the most severe 1-3% of cholera cases. If started at the onset of illness, weakness, orthostasis, muscle cramps, lethargy, and other symptoms of a contracted circulating blood volume are entirely prevented. Poor countries have rapidly expanded their use of this practical and inexpensive treatment while it has been largely neglected in wealthy nations in favour of the more hazardous and costly luxury of hospitalisation and intravenous therapy. Improved solutions are now emerging that not only rehydrate patients, but also reduce severity and shorten illness.