Dehydration from diarrhoea can be prevented by giving extra fluids at home, or it can be treated simply, effectively, and cheaply in all age-groups and in all but the most severe cases by giving patients by mouth an adequate glucose-electrolyte solution called Oral …

Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) is the non-proprietary name for a balanced glucose-electrolyte mixture, first used in 1969 and approved, recommended, and distributed by UNICEF and WHO as a drug for the treatment of clinical dehydration throughout the world.

The new formula for ORS has been scientifically proven to be more efficacious than the old one, and is now the formula recommended by WHO and UNICEF. Packets of the new ORS are being produced by UNICEF for global distribution and local manufacturers are encouraged to produce only this new formula.

World Health Organization. (‎2006)‎. Oral rehydration salts : production of the new ORS. World Health Organization. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/69227

Oral rehydration salts (ORS) and oral rehydration therapy (ORT), adopted by UNICEF and WHO in the late 1970s, have been successful in helping manage diarrhoea among children.

Glucose and several salts in a mixture known as Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) are dissolved in water to form ORS solution (Annex 2). ORS solution is absorbed in the small intestine even during copious diarrhoea, thus replacing the water and electrolytes lost in the faeces.

Thus, the WHO-recommended ORS formulation satisfies the physiological criteria for intestinal absorption of water and electrolytes, thereby meeting the need for optimum correction of the fluid and electrolyte deficit which occurs in infants, older children, and adults during dehydration due to diarrhoea (including choleTa).

WHO and UNICEF have jointly developed official guidelines for the manufacture of oral rehydration solution and the oral rehydration salts used to make it (both often abbreviated ORS). They also describe other acceptable solutions, depending on material availability.

Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) is a first‐line therapeutic measure to compensate the volume loss due to diarrhea and vomiting among gastroenteritis patients. Despite adequate knowledge, the practice of ORT is limited, particularly in developing countries.

Oral rehydration salts (ORS) were reported to treat 90-95% of acute diarrheal diseases. [1] The composition of ORS recommended by WHO, [2] in 1969 was as follows: