Portal:Medicine/Did you know/13

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• ...Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) is a simple, cheap, and effective treatment for diarrhea-related dehydration? It is used around the world, but is most important in the Third World, where it saves millions of children from diarrhea—still their leading cause of death. According to The Lancet (1978), ORT is "potentially the most important medical discovery of the 20th century".

• ...Arsenic was used even in the second half of the 20th century for psoriasis, and was approved in 2000 by the FDA for the treatment of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia that is resistant to ATRA?

• ...the term "dengue" is a Spanish attempt at the Swahili phrase "ki denga pepo", meaning "cramp- like seizure caused by an evil spirit"? "Beriberi" on the other hand, originates from the Sinhalese (Sri Lankan) language meaning "I cannot, I cannot".