A new international study published today in The Lancet provides the clearest picture yet of the impact and most common cause, prevention and treatment of diarrheal diseases killing 8,00,000 children, the second leading killer of young children globally, after pneumonia. The Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS) is the largest study ever conducted on diarrheal diseases in developing countries, enrolling more than 20,000 children from seven sites across Asia and Africa.
GEMS, coordinated by the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development, confirmed rotavirus – for which a vaccine already exists – as the leading cause of diarrheal disease among infants and identified other top causes for which additional research is urgently needed. GEMS found that approximately one in five children under the age of two suffers from moderate-to-severe diarrhea (MSD) each…
