Diarrhoea patients on the rise amid heatwaves in Bangladesh

by Rashad Ahamad

The number of diarrhoea patients is on the rise in Dhaka and adjacent districts, with a large number of them taking medical care from the hospital at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh in the capital.

According to ICDDR,B data, 777 diarrhoea patients received treatment from the centre’s hospital on Wednesday whereas the average daily number of patients receiving treatment in the past year was less than half of the figure.

Data also showed that 578 patients with loose motion were given care at the hospital on Saturday, 613 patients on Sunday, 676 patients on Monday while the number reached 732 on Tuesday.

The centre’s associate scientist Monira Sharmin said that a large proportion of the diarrhoea patients visiting the hospital this season were adult.

‘We usually get 70 per cent children and 30 per  cent adult diarrhoea cases throughout the year, but now we are getting some 50 per cent adult patients,’ she said, adding that both categories of patients increased in number.

A significant number of patients, she noted, are visiting the hospital from Mirpur, Keraniganj, Narayanganj among other areas in the capital and outside the capital.

Public health expert and former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Professor Nazrul Islam said that high temperature facilitates the rapid growth of the water-borne bacteria, viruses or parasites in food and drink items and their consumption causes diarrhoea.

According to the World Health Organization, Diarrhoea is usually a symptom of an infection in the intestinal tract, which can be caused by a variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms.

Infection is spread through contaminated food or drinking-water, or from person to person as a result of poor hygiene, it further says.

Professor Nazrul advised people to maintain caution about food and drink in order to avoid the disease.

ICDDR,B officials urged diarrhoea patients to take treatment at nearby healthcare facilities where the treatment can be afforded in a short time. Immediate interventions are important for patients to avoid any complexity for late treatment due to traffic jam, they said.

A residential building security guard Rafiqul Islam was admitted to the hospital in the morning as he had started having loose motion since night.

Rafiqul, 42, said that he drank water collected from a Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority tap at Shewrapara in the capital.

An electrician named Shihab Uddin said that he had been suffering from diarrhoea since Tuesday. He drank water from a roadside restaurant’s water jar.

Physicians advised people not to take antibiotics without prescription from a registered physician because a wrong use of an antibiotic might cause harms in the long run.

Monira Sharmin said that they were conducting a research on a random basis and found that a significant number of cases were visiting them with diarrhoea due to rotavirus and the E. coli bacteria infection.

Physicians also said that they found some patients infected cholerae bacteria in Dhaka and elsewhere.

ICDDR,B officials said that every year the number of diarrhoea patients increased in summer compared to others seasons of the year.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department on Thursday recorded the maximum temperature at 33.3 degrees Celsius and the minimum temperature at 30.7C in Dhaka while the country’s maximum temperature was recorded at 38.6C in Saidpur.

Physicians suggested drinking water after purifying it. Water can be purified by boiling or using medicines. Personal hygiene is also another important issue, they said.

They also suggested that diarrhoea patients should drink oral saline adequately along with normal food until they fully recover.

‘Oral saline is a medicine and it should be mixed with water accurately,’ said physician Monira as she observed that many people hardly followed the rules.

Health service officials in different districts said that they were getting reports of higher diarrhoea patients but the situation was not out of control.

Local hospitals were providing service to an additional number of patients with limited resources. 

Published on New Age

Diarrhoea kills 34 in 6 weeks in Bangladesh

by Rashad Ahamad

At least 34 people died of diarrhoea and about 2 lakh people were admitted to hospitals across the country in the past six weeks until Wednesday.

The Directorate General of Health Services in an online press conference on Wednesday said that it would provide oral vaccines to 2,3 million people in five diarrhoea-prone areas in Dhaka to grow better resistance against diarrhoea.

DGHS disease control director Dr Md Nazmul Islam said that they had compiled the data received from its 22 surveillance centres across the country and the compilation report said that a total of 1,70,237 patients had been admitted to government hospitals since March 1 and four of them have died.

The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh said on Wednesday that over 35,000 people with diarrhoeal diseases had taken treatment at the Dhaka Hospital of the centre since March 1 and a total of 30 of them had died.

A senior official of the hospital said that 25 patients were brought dead while five died in the hospital while undergoing treatment.

DGHS disease control director Nazmul Islam said that they would incorporate the ICDDR,B data in the national data soon after the centre would have handed over its data to the DGHS.

Doctors and public health experts have suggested people to take treatment at nearby hospitals immediately and to drink plenty of fluids, including oral saline and pure water, soon after they develop the symptoms of diarrhoea.

They also asked people to be careful about their food and drinks to prevent diarrhoea.

DGHS director general Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam said that it will start a mass vaccination programme in May in five diarrhoea prone area of Dhaka, namely Jatrabari, Dakkhinkhan, Mohammadpur, Mirpur and Sabujbagh.

The second or booster dose will be given in June, he added.

‘Any person, except pregnant women, aged above one year will get the vaccine,’ he said.

Public health expert and former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Professor Nazrul Islam said that the government should adequately prepare its health facilities across the country to tackle diarrhoea as high temperature in summer facilitates the rapid growth of the water-borne bacteria, viruses or parasites in food and drink items and their consumption causes diarrhoea.

At least 4,253 diarrhoea patients were admitted to different government hospitals across the country and three died in past 24 hours till 8:00am on Tuesday, according to the data collected from divisional health directors’ offices across the country.

However, the data on the patients admitted to specialised hospitals and medical college hospitals across the country were not available to the divisional health offices.

ICDDR,B spokesperson AKM Tariful Islam said that ICDDR,B was struggling to give treatment to a huge number of patients as a total of 1,103 patients were admitted to the Dhaka Hospital in past 24-hour on Tuesday.

Official data of the Management Information System of the DGHS shows that a total of 4,61,611 diarrhoea patients were admitted to government hospitals across the country in the first three months of 2022.

Nazmul said that among the patients children were mostly infected with Rotavirus while the adult people were found infected with mixed pathogens including cholera, e-coly and other parasites.

Doctors said that they were getting a large number of critical patients every day who had taken antibiotic pills without the prescription of doctors and such tendency had also made their condition complicated.

The Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research director Professor Tahmina Shirin said that they were getting patients from some specific areas in Dhaka as the disease is closely related to water contamination.

She asked the authorities concerned to check the water quality.

Published on New Age