Why does it kill?

For children living in the developing world, inflammatory diarrhea is most common. This means the lining of the gut becomes inflamed, and is usually caused by viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections.

There are two terms of diarrhea: there's acute diarrhea, which only lasts 5 to 10 days, Chronic Diarrhea or long term diarrhea lasts for more than 10 days.

Young children can die from both acute and chronic diarrhea, however children have a better chance of surviving depending on the accessibility to proper Heath care and sanitation. Unfortunately, access to proper health care is uncommon.

The diarrhea itself

Dehydration

For children under 5 years old, it is important to keep hydrated, mainly because a big portion of their body is water.

When they have contaminated water in their system, they are at risk of a diarrheal disease. When someone has acute or chronic inflammatory Diarrhea, they frequently pass loose or watery stools, (loose/watery poop) which could lead to sever fluid loss. After a while, if the child does not get clean water into their system or medical help, they can get extremely dehydrated/ill resulting in a slow and painful death.