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A Preventable Disease
Diarrhoeal diseases which broke out in the south of the country over a month ago are showing no sign of letting up. despite official assurances that things are getting better. Over 600 have already died, but if this represents a situation "under control", then we dread to think to what level casualties must rise before the situation can be called an epidemic.
Of course, diarrhoea is not a strange phenomenon in this or any other part of the developing world. Diarrhoeal diseases are an ever-present danger during a dry spell when underground water level drops significantly and subterranean aquifers run dry. and even tubewells fall to pump water. Under the circumstances, people take to drinking surface water which is invariably polluted. exposing themselves to diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases. In our case, the 28 districts that have so far been hit by the epidemic — let's stop pussy-footying around and call a spade a spade — have been suffering from neardrought condition for a couple of months. The consequent spread of the disease did not alarm or even surprise medical experts In this country.
However, the situation still represents a major failure on our part on several accounts, the most obvious one of which is our inability to provide clean water to drought-stricken areas either permanently or even on an emergency basis. A second but serious shortcoming is our failure to act swiftly enough to prevent so many deaths. A seasonal health hazard that was more or less limited to three or four districts a couple of months ago was allowed to assume epidemic proportions spreading across 28 districts. A major part of the responsibility for this state of affairs has to lie with local administration as well as the Ministry of Health. For weeks, newspapers Including this one have been reporting severe shortage of hospital beds and medicines, mainly salines, in affected areas: yet young children have continued to die from nothing other than lack of proper care.
Simply because this happens every year we seem to have grown complacent. But there is no reason why so many lives should be lost to a disease that is eminently preventable as well as easily curable. What good are grand roads and highways in a country which cannot even supply clean drinking water to its population? What is the point of building bridges over this or that river — with foreign aid money — when we cannot even save our children from such an uncomplicated disease? We seem to have got our priorities the wrong way round, but there is still time to inject some commonsense into our approach.
The top priority is. of course, prevention. That would require a major effort to ensure supply of safe drinking water to as many as possible. That would naturally take a great deal of time, effort and money, but the initiative has to be taken on a priority basis without delay along with a grassroots campaign to increase awareness about community hygiene. In the meantime, a system of early-warning, through monitoring of rainfall and availability of fresh water across the country, ought to be constituted so that health authorities are in a position to act in good time. The fact that hospitals simply ran out of salines also warrants urgent attention. District surgeons should make sure hospitals and mobile medical teams in their areas are adequately stocked with salines and other anti-dlarrhoea medicines, particularly from late winter onwards. Even if we are unable at present to provide the most effective answer l.e. primary prevention through fresh water and clean environment, then let us act In the secondary stage and save lives. No miracle drug is needed: rather, thorough planning, good organisation and dedicated application are the requirements.