Health Highlights: March 10, 2009

Mar. 11 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Diarrhea Kills 2 Million Children Each Year: WHO

Although relatively simple to treat, diarrhea kills nearly 2 million children worldwide each year, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The agency noted that research into childhood diarrhea has declined since the 1980s, Agence France Presse reported.

"Funds available for research into diarrhea are much lower than those devoted to other diseases that cause comparatively few deaths," the WHO said in a statement.

It's essential that all children with diarrhea have access to treatment consisting of zinc tablets and a mixture called Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS), said Dr. Olivier Fontaine, a WHO medical officer specializing in child health, AFP reported.

"ORS is essentially a pinch of salt and a handful of sugar mixed with clean water," Fontaine explained.

The mixture, which costs about 30 cents per child, has saved about 50 million children over the years, the WHO estimates.

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Well-Being Highest in U.S. West: Survey

States in the West tend to have the highest levels of well-being, while those in the South and Midwest tend to have the lowest levels, according to a survey that included more than 350,000 adults.

Utah, Hawaii and Wyoming topped the United States in well-being, while West Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi were at the bottom, United Press International reported.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, released Tuesday, asked respondents about six categories of well-being, including health behaviors, physical health, emotional health, work environment, and access to basic necessities.

According to the survey, the economic crisis caused the lives of more than 24 million Americans to shift from "thriving" to "struggling" in 2008.

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Minorities Have Higher End-of-Life Costs

Dying Hispanics and black Americans have much higher treatment costs than whites, because they get more costly, intensive treatments as they near death, say researchers who analyzed data from the last six months of life of almost 160,000 Medicare patients.