New Delhi, July 4 -- With monsoon rains now covering the entire country, central ministries have jointly urged states and Union Territories to take steps to significantly improve public health standards in order to combat diarrhoea, a preventable disease that reportedly kills a vast number of under-five children in the country every year.

A joint communication from the ministries of health, women and child development, agriculture, education, water and sanitation, and urban development and housing, called for enhanced access to clean water, stronger nutrition programmes, and widespread promotion of hygiene, while ensuring the availability of oral rehydration salts (ORS) and zinc at all health facilities.

Acute Diarrheal Disease or ADD i...