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Diarrhoea cases shoot up on heat

Lack of pure drinking water also seen as reason

HelemulAlam
Summer heat and lack of supply of drinking water have triggered diarrhoea outbreak in the capital since middle of last month.
The worst reports are coming from Badda, Gulshan, Jatrabari, Tejgaon, Mirpur and Lalbagh areas.
According to the Department of Health, a total of 1,264 patients were admitted in different hospitals in the capital on the first day of April whereas at least two people died and 28,405 others suffered from diarrhoea during January Ito March 31 this year.
A total of756 patients took admission to International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) hospital on April 1 while 670 others on March 30. Before that, the average admission here on diarrhoeal diseases was 250 a day. Besides, many patients are undergoing treatment at homes.
Lack of drinking water and awareness among people and contaminated food are causing this rush towards hospitals, said doctors of icddr.b.
Be-Nazir Ahmed, director (disease control) of Directorate General of Health Service, at a press conference held in icddr.b yesterday said they had already talked with the managing director of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) and got positive response about finding out the reasons of water contamination.
Be-Nazir said they would examine water samples of Gulshan, Baridhara, Jatrabari, Tejgaon and Mirpur. Every year an increasing number of people suffer from diarrhoeal diseases due to scarcity of
safe water, he added.
He said they had already made special arrangements for diarrhoeal patients in all district- and upazila-level hospitals.
Yousuf Hossain, a second-year college student and resident of Uttar Badda who took admission to icddr.b yesterday afternoon, blamed lack of drinking-water supply for this diarrhoeaspread.
“Acute scarcity of water in the area for the last one week has forced us to queue at a deep tube-well, from which we hardly can collect two to three buckets of water a day,” said Yousuf, adding that this amount of water is not even near to what they need.
Another patient of icddr.b Rabeya Khatun said she got diarrhoea by drinking directly from the tap.
Against such backdrop, the health department in cooperation from icddr.b is
going to start satellite clinic in the capital.
“By this month we will set up a clinic in Tongi, on the outskirt of the capital, and gradually two more at Dhaka Mohanagar General Hospital and Shishu Hospital,” said Azharul Islam, chief of the short-stay unit at icddr.b.
He said at least eight patients died on their way to icddr.b in March. But had they had such facility nearby, the lives could be saved.
The satellite clinics will help people to get quality healthcare service, especially on diarrhoeal diseases, as icddr.b would provide the technical support, he said.
Azharul urged people to boil the drinking water, at least for 10 minutes, wash hands after using the toilet and before taking food, and avoid street foods.