摘要:Diarrhoeal diseases are still among the leadingcauses of childhood mortality in the world, contributingto more than 800 000 deaths in childrenyounger than 5 years of age in 2010 [1,2].It is widely acknowledgedthat a major portion of those deaths can beprevented if universal coverage of known effective interventionscould be achieved [3,4].However, recent evaluationshave shown that the uptake of those interventions israther disappointing, with only a minority of all childrenwith life–threatening episodes of diarrhoea in low– andmiddle–income countries having access to trained healthcare providers and receiving appropriate treatment [5–7].Thus, novel diarrhoea control strategies that balance investmentsin scaling up of existing interventions and the developmentof novel approaches, technologies and ideas areneeded.