Health Highlights: Oct. 14, 2009

Oct. 15 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

U.N. Agencies Aim to Reduce Diarrhea Death Toll

Each year, diarrhea kills 1.5 million children under the age of 5, even though there are inexpensive and effective treatments available for this common health problem, say UN agencies.

Only about 39 percent of children with diarrhea in developing countries receive the recommended treatment, said Ann Veneman, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Agence France-Presse reported.

Contaminated water and infections are the main causes of diarrhea, which accounts for close to 18 percent of all deaths among children under 5, according to Olivier Fontaine, the World Health Organization's children's health expert.

The two agencies have launched a new campaign to reduce diarrhea's death toll. The seven-point plan to prevent and treat diarrhea includes promotion of hand washing with soap, promotion of early breastfeeding, replacing body fluids to prevent dehydration, and zinc treatment, AFP reported.

Simply washing hands with soap can reduce the incidence of diarrhea by more than 40 percent, according to UNICEF.

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Coma Patient Gives Birth to Healthy Baby

A healthy baby boy was born to a 40-year-old woman who spent the last 22 weeks of her pregnancy in a coma, say doctors at a clinic in Germany. They described the world-first event as "extraordinary."

Clinic officials said since the 1970s, about 25 cases of brain death or coma in pregnant women have been made public, and they tend to end in miscarriage or deformed babies, Agence France-Presse reported.

"Given the mother's age -- and the completely normal state of the child -- this case is extraordinary in the scientific world and very pleasing," said Matthias Beckmann, of the University Clinic in Erlangen, southern Germany.