Disease kills millions of children annually.

• Position: Diarrhea - Brief Article

To most people from industrialized nations, diarrhea is a nuisance. It means some discomfort and maybe a trip to the local pharmacy. However, many would be shocked to learn that it is one of the leading killers among the developing world's children, responsible for approximately 2,000,000 deaths each year. Moreover, the condition contributes to 46,000,000 deaths annually.

The Institute for OneWorld Health, a San Francisco-based, nonprofit pharmaceutical company, is conducting a landscape analysis in the field of infectious diarrhea. As a first step, it will use the findings from a recently held workshop of experts to examine the feasibility of an international diarrhea vaccine effort, with particular emphasis on pediatric solutions. Vaccines against the viral- and bacterial-causing agents represent one of the greatest hopes for near-term solutions for the second largest killer of children under the age of five.

"This neglected disease area is devastating, not only because one in 200 children who contract infectious diarrhea will die from it, but for those who survive, it has a lifelong, generation-wide impact," states...