Diarrhoea patients have to stay on the floor of Pabna General Hospital as their number is on the rise. The photo was taken yesterday.Photo: STAR

Diarrhoea situation in Pabna sees further deterioration as 80 more patients were admitted to Pabna General Hospital during the 24 hours till yesterday afternoon.
Meanwhile, acute saline crisis has added to the situation.
At least one thousand people have been affected with diarrhoea in Pabna Sadar upazila during the last 15 days while three people died of the disease in last three days, sources said.
District health department sources, however, confirmed diarrhoeal death of one person in the Sadar upazila.
To tackle the situation, the district health department has cancelled all kinds of leave for its staff including doctors and health assistants.
Several teams have also started door-to-door visit to monitor the situation, health officials said.
During a visit to the Diarrhoea Ward of Pabna General Hospital, this correspondent found that around 80 patients were lying on the floor.
Eighty more diarrhoea patients were admitted to Pabna General Hospital from Friday to Saturday noon, hospital sources said, adding that the number of diarrhoea patients coming there is on rise.
Diarrhoea patients in the hospital said they are suffering due to inadequate supply of intravenous (IV) saline and other medicines.
“My wife was admitted just two hours before. Getting no saline from the hospital, I have bought it from the outside market for Tk 170 a bag,” Md Belal Hossain of Mahamudpur village in Pabna Sadar upazila said yesterday noon.
The price of saline was more than double the usual price, sources said.
“We are supplying saline for patients but the requirement is too high. The district health department has urged the higher authorities to arrange adequate saline in a short time,” said Dr Md Tariqul Islam, resident medical officer of Pabna General Hospital.
To monitor the diarrhoea situation in Pabna, the district health department held an urgent meeting yesterday morning.
Pabna Civil Surgeon Dr AHM Khairul Alam Chowdhuri chaired the meeting while the doctors, health officials, Red Crescent officials, municipality health officials were present, among others.
The health department has formed a 43-member monitoring committee comprising 20 members from Red Crescent, 10 members from the health department, eight members from Pabna municipality and five from Pabna Sadar upazila, meeting sources said.
Divided into several groups, the members have started door-to-door visit in Pabna Sadar upazila and municipality area to monitor the diarrhoea situation and give suggestions to the patients, said Dr Dipak Kumar, deputy civil surgeon of Pabna.
The upazila administration has started drives by a special mobile court to destroy spurious food items from Pabna markets, said Pabna Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Debashish Nag.
The mobile court led by the UNO and comprising health officials and law enforcers seized several bags of spurious juice, butter, chips and other food items from Pabna Municipality market and later dumped the spurious items into the Ichhamati River on Saturday noon.