Diarrhoea cases keep rising in Barishal

The diarrhoea situation in Barishal division has become "severe", with cases spreading to 18 out of 40 upazilas in six districts. On top of that, intravenous (IV) fluids like saline have suddenly gone out of stock in many places across the division. 

Health officials say that contaminated water is the cause for this crisis. They have confirmed that Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) found the bacterium E coli in stools of patients.

Meanwhile, medical services are being disrupted due to insufficient supply of saline, as both the private sector and the government are finding it hard to meet demand.

According to Barishal Divisional Health Office, 32,183 people suffered from diarrhoea in the last three months in six districts of the division. In the last month, 17,672 people got diarrhoea. In the last week, an average of 1,100 patients were admitted every day, but that has increased to more than 1,500 in the last 24 hours.

Bhola is the most affected district. It saw 8,090 admissions from the beginning of this year till yesterday, and 4,252 of them were in the last month. Among the patients, four died in Bakerganj upazila, two in Barguna and two in Patuakhali in the last week, according to divisional health office's tally till yesterday afternoon.

Dr Basudeb Kumar Das, director of the health office, said pollution of river water has increased, and as a result, people are contracting waterborne diseases.

"Although diarrhoea is a symptom of Covid-19, we are still not sure if the cases are due to Covid-19. So far, the number of Covid-19 patients is 13,832 [in Barishal division], and of them, 244 have died," he said.

Dr Shyamal Krishna Mandal, assistant director of the health office, said two teams sent by IEDCR found E coli, which may be present in contaminated water, in stools of the patients.

Meanwhile, there is a demand for more than one lakh saline bags in the six districts at the moment, but it has been confirmed that there are only a few thousand bags available across the division.

"The demand [for saline] in our department has increased by multiple times the usual. A patient can often need up to 50 litres of IV fluids, so the difference between demand and stock is huge," Dr Shyamal said. "But hopefully it will be resolved."

He said representatives of the pharmaceutical companies have been instructed not to create saline crisis in any way.

Gautam Biswas, owner of Upasham Pharmacy in Bakerganj, said IV fluids of various companies have gone out of stock in the last week.

Arun Ghosh, proprietor of Habib Medical Hall of Barisal city, said that even if someone offers to pay extra, IV saline is not available. Every day at least 50 people are coming in need of saline.

Md Mohsin, senior regional sales officer of Beximco Pharmaceuticals in Barishal, said currently, at least more than 50,000 IV saline bags are urgently needed, but they are not being able to supply half that amount, even though multiple companies are trying to meet demand.

"Normally, Beximco supplies 2,000 bags of saline in the market in this season. This situation has arisen due to a sudden increase in demand" he said.

Dr Malay Krishna, residential medical officer of Barishal General Hospital, said there is a crisis of IV fluids at the facility. "We have asked for 20,000 bags from relevant authorities. Let's see how much we get."

Dr Syed Rejaul Islam, civil surgeon of Bhola, said on average, 300-350 patients get treatment every day, but the current IV fluid stock in the district will last for just 10-15 days.

A total of 35,000 bags of IV fluids are supposed to arrive in the division, and if they do, the problem can be managed, said director of the divisional health office.