DKT concluded a 27-month campaign to introduce diarrhea treatment kits (DTK) supported by the Micronutrient Initiative (MI) and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in December 2015.

The campaign, which launched the LemLem Plus DTK combining oral rehydration salts (ORS) and zinc into a single package, resulted in the distribution of 778,817 DTKs. The campaign was also responsible for disseminating 2,352 TV and radio spots and training nearly 4,000 pharmaceutical and other health providers.

“We saw a real bump in demand in 2015 as providers and consumers began to internalize the benefits of combined-ORS and zinc,” says Dagnachew Alemayehu, National Key Accounts Manager for DKT and Project Lead for LemLem Plus.

Diarrhea treatment kits are increasingly used as first-line treatment for diarrhea in children under five. The combined treatment is shown to reduce the severity and duration of diarrheal illness as well as preventing recurrence.

                                                                  Figure 1: Location of DKT’s LemLem Plus billboards

DKT Ethiopia will introduce an orange-flavored LemLem Plus variant in the first quarter of 2016 and continue to build private sector demand for this life-saving product.

Contact Dagnachew Alemayehu