Treatment of dehydration in children with severe acute malnutrition

Severe acute malnutrition is defined by a very low weight for height, by visible severe wasting, or by the presence of nutritional oedema. Dehydration is common in people with severe acute malnutrition and is caused by untreated diarrhoea, which leads to a loss of water and electrolytes.

In children with severe acute malnutrition, WHO recommends that mild and moderate dehydration caused by cholera should be treated immediately with oral rehydration salts, and that severe dehydration should be treated with intravenous fluids.

Where dehydration in severe acute malnutrition is caused by other diarrhoeal diseases, WHO recommends treatment with an altered version of oral rehydration salts called ReSoMal, which is higher in potassium and lower in sodium.