Diarrhoea has now attained epidemic form: ICDDR,B
Courtesy New Age 20/4/09
Staff Correspondent
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Diarrhoea, which has broken out in alarming proportions in
The ICDDR,B received 908 patients on Saturday, 775 on Friday and 899 on Thursday.
According to the health control room, the number of patients in the last 24 hours across the country was 1,514, including the ICDDR,B’s 908 patients.
A total of 26 persons, including women and children, died of diarrhoea since the water-borne disease spread throughout the capital from the beginning of March, said sources in the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research,
‘There are some cases in which severely attacked diarrhoea patients died on way to the hospital, which means that they had not received any treatment after being attacked by the disease,’ said an on-duty physician of the ICDDR,B on Sunday.
‘Today’s case was similar and the girl died at least 20 minutes before being brought here’, said the ICDDR,B’s short-stay unit’s head, Dr Azharul Islam Khan.
Twenty-six such cases came to the ICDDR,B this year, said a source, adding that they had died on the way or in other hospitals of the city.
The mother of 14-day-old Sumaiya could not calm her down; she has been suffering from diarrhoea for the last five days.
Asma brought Sumaiya all the way from Narayanganj to ICDDR,B two days earlier but the child was still not out of danger, said a doctor at the ward that was full of babies below one year of age.
A two-month-old baby, Shahid, from Bashail in Vikrampur was admitted to the ICDDR,B twice in the last 15 days.
Doctors said Shahid, who had lost his mother during delivery, was not breast-fed so his resistance power was very low.
The lack of safe drinking water, intake of contaminated food and unsafe sanitation have resulted in the epidemic form of diarrhoea in
He called for establishment of camps at different places in the capital, particularly areas like Mirpur and Mohammadpur where water contamination is high, Dr Azharul added.
‘It is an epidemic. We normally receive only 250 to 300 patients daily on an average but when the number of patients goes up to 350 or more, we call it an epidemic,’ said the doctor.
The ICDDR,B is ready to provide treatment for all who can reach the hospital either in
At least 40 patients are reporting to the ICDDR,B every hour, said sources, adding that the number has tripled compared to the same period last year. Three additional tents have been set up in the car parking area to cope with the situation.
Sources at the hospital also said that it was a new pre-monsoon period (March to April) record as the ICDDR,B on April 3 received 1,027 patients, the highest ever in one day.
On the other hand the number of patients in the post-monsoon period (August to September) was the highest in 2007 when the ICDDR,B had to treat 1,045 patients per day.
Sixteen of the 14,605 patients admitted to different hospitals of the country in the last seven days have died.
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