Diarrhoeal Disease Among Under Five Children in India: A Brief Review

India has made steady progress in reducing deaths in children younger than 5 years, with total deaths declining from 2.5 million in 2001 to 1.5 million in 2012(1). WHO estimates that, worldwide, 525,000 children under five years die due to diarrhoeal diseases each year with 1.7 billion cases of diarrhoeal disease every year(2). The current global cholera epidemic can only be resolved through the introduction of safe drinking water supplies and appropriate levels of hygiene. These diseases are usually caused by water-borne pathogens such as salmonella, E. coli, shigella and enteroviruses (3). Kreisel et al., has commented that“The diseases associated with water are heavily contaminated in the developing world”. “They hit hardest the poorest urban and rural households of the poor countries. Nearly half of the populations in developing countries suffer from health problems directly linked to insufficient or contaminated water” (3). Information on diarrheal diseases, its determinants in India and preventive and control strategies in light of recent developments need to be reviewed for better planning and organization of health services within the community(1). The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a large scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India. All National Family Health Surveys have been conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, with the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, serving as the nodal agency. ICF International, Maryland, USA, provided technical assistance for all four surveys conducted as on date. The Fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) was carried out in 2014-2015. It is similar of demographic and health surveys done in many countries around the world. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) was introduced in India in the early 1990s with the first NFHS conducted in 1992-93. Since then, India has successfully completed NFHS-2 in 1998-99 and NFHS-3 in 2005-06.In 2014-2015, India implemented the fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4). .In addition to the 29 states, NFHS-4 data included all six union territories for the first time and also provided estimates of most indicators at the district level for all 640 districts in the country as per the 2011 census (4) .