484 more hospitalised in 24 hours

An attendant is cooling prepared rice saline to feed this child infected with diarrhoea at a makeshift camp at ICDDR,B in Mohakhali. The camp has been set up as the water-borne disease breaks out in the city alarmingly.Photo: Shawkat Jamil

Experts blamed contaminated sources of water as well as the climate change for the sudden outbreak of diarrhoea in different areas of Dhaka and Pabna district recently.
A total of 484 diarrhoeal patients were admitted to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research in Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) hospital yesterday, according to the authorities.
To tackle the outbreak, the ICDDR,B has already established a makeshift treatment corner at the premise and discussed with the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and Dhaka City Corporation to find a place for a mobile or temporary camp to provide immediate treatment to the affected people of Badda.
People of Nayanagar at Badda and Jagannathpur -- near Bashundhara residential area -- are the worst sufferers of the disease that broke out early in the month, said Dr M Shahadat Hossain, scientist and head of ICDDR,B long stay unit.
Immediately, the ICDDR,B collected stool, rectal swab and water samples from the area and the laboratory investigation found 60 percent patients suffering from cholera. The report on the water samples would be available today, said another scientist of the centre.
Sixty percent of diarrhoea patients come from Badda, 11 from Gulshan, seven from Mirpur and six percent from Lalbagh area, according to the ICDDR,B record.
The immense pressure on water and sanitation due to over population, climate change and contamination of water are the major causes for spread of diarrhoea even in this off period -- during the month of November, said Dr Shahadat.
Sumona, mother of a seven-year old boy, busy yesterday to find an auto rickshaw at the Norda crossing to take her son to ICDDR,B said “We live in a slum at Badda. Last week, diarrhoea inflicted all of my family members.”
“We did not find any smell from the tube well water, but there were some very small substances and we thought it would not be harmful,” she added.
In another incident, the director of disease control and line director of DGHS requested the ICDDR,B to conduct an investigation in Pabna district as a large number of people were suffering from diarrhoea in the first week of October.
According to an investigation report, due to contaminated water a total of 1580 people suffered from diarrhoea in October and 1467 in September this year while the number was only 618 and 668 respectively in the previous year.