Surveillance of acute diarrhoeal diseases at village level for effective home management of diarrhoea.

One thousand thirtynine infants, 794 children in their second year of life and 445 children in their third year of life were followed up longitudinally from April 1984 to March 1985. Nearly 6 episodes of diarrhoea per annum, during infancy, 5.49 episodes in second and 4.19 episodes during third year of life respectively, were experienced. On an average, each episode of diarrhoea lasted for four days. 20% of infants, 6.43% of children between 1-2 years and 7.26% of children between 2-3 years, experienced weight loss of 300 gm. or more following episode of diarrhoea. Diarrhoea case fatality rate was 1.8% and 0.75% for infants and children between 1-3 years of age respectively. Home management of diarrhoeas by mothers with the advocacy of anganwadi workers and health workers yielded dividends. Sustained efforts of this kind may go a long way in management of diarrhoeas.