Saline price spikes on diarrhoea spurt

Short supply and price rise of oral rehydration saline while diarrhoea is spreading over the last few days have added to sufferings of people attacked with the disease.
Oral saline of Social Marketing Company (SMC), which produces about 60 percent of the country's requirement, as well as those of around 15 other companies are now selling at higher prices. And SMC'S saline is also not available in some areas, a field visit showed.
Wholesalers at Mitford, the capital's major drug market, were selling SMC's saline at Tk 65 per sachet (consisting of 20 small packets) yesterday while the maximum retail price (MRP) is fixed at Tk 60.
“ We are purchasing SMC's oral saline from Mitford at higher price over the last few weeks as its supply is too limited but demand is too high, ” said a drug seller, Shah Alam.
A drug seller at Uttara said the company has cut its supply in the last two months. "Earler, we used to buy one sachet of oral sailne at Tk 52, and we are buying it at Tk 60 for the last several weeks."
A resident of Uttara said, “ Salesmen asked for Tk 5 per packet of SMC's saline on the excuse of short supply of it, and I had to buy it at Tk 4 a packet while the retail price is fixed at Tk 3.”
Several retailers at Shahbagh said they have no supply of SMC's saline for the last three weeks while several others said they were not facing any supply shortage.
When contacted, the marketing manager of SMC said they have neither increased the price of oral saline nor decreased its production and supply.
"It is the wholesalers who create artificial crisis of the item to sell it at higher price as its demand rises in the summer due outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases," said another SMC official.
Meanwhile, the number of diarrhoea patients in different areas of the capital is increasing since last week.
Some 336 diarrhoea patients were admitted to the International Centre of Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) yesterday till 4:00 pm. About the same number of patients were admitted on the day before yesterday.
According to the control room at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), some 2,116 people were attacked with diarrhoea since Wednesday morning while three died of this disease. The number rose to 14,572 across the country since last week.
“Almost 20 percent of the outdoor patients are now seeking treatment for diarrhoea in our hospital, which was 15 percent earlier,” said Dr Mahbubul Hasan of Dhaka Shishu Hospital.
“Due to the heat spell, dehydration takes place and at the same time some types of bacteria grow quickly in foods. And by taking these foods, people develop diarrhoeal diseases,” he said.