Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Diarrhoea too enters disease list

— Photo: S. Mahinsha

Troubles tail rain: People queue up in front of the General Hospital in the city on Monday. Hospitals across the district are witnessing a heavy rush following outbreak of fever and other communicable diseases in the first phase of monsoon.

Thiruvananthapuram: The onset of monsoon has resulted not just in a higher incidence of seasonal influenza and viral fevers, but also Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases (ADD) in many parts of the district.

While the urbanites might prefer to think of ADD as a phenomenon that is confined to the coastal belt, where water contamination possibilities are immense and hygiene poor, acute diarrhoeal diseases have been reported in large numbers from urban areas as well after the rains, district health administration officials said.

“The incidence of ADD in the coastal belt has gone up slightly after the first showers. But a large number of paediatric cases of diarrhoeal diseases, including dysentery and non-cholera- gastroenteritis, have been reported from many private hospitals in the city too,” district medical officer N. Sreedhar said.

ADD is considered the second largest infectious disease in Kerala after acute respiratory illness. In the district, an average of 50 cases of ADD is being reported daily in the past few weeks. The number of cases has been going up steadily after June 1. According to the daily report issued by the State Disease Control and Monitoring Cell on Monday, 102 cases of ADD have been reported in the district. Four cases of typhoid, another water-borne infectious disease, has also been reported in the district since June 2.

However, these figures should not be seen in isolation, health officials said. Just as the sudden change in climate can trigger viral infections, the first few monsoon showers can cause water contamination, precipitating water-borne diseases like ADD, gastroenteritis, dysentery or jaundice due to Hepatitis A or E. “A type of infectious viral diarrhoea has been doing the rounds this season and this is not necessarily a direct water-borne infection. We have also had reports of a condition with fever and diarrhoea, which resolves in a day or two. Thankfully, the knowledge-levels about ORS (oral rehydration salts) therapy is very high,” Dr. Sreedhar said.

Health officials said that water must be strictly boiled before drinking. Frequent washing of hands with soap can prevent a host of ADD to a large extent – up to 43 per cent, if some studies done by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are to be believed. “Many people feel that the hot drinking water served in most hotels is safe. But in many places, often, tap water is added to the boiled water either to bring down its temperature or when the quantity of water is not sufficient. This renders the water unsafe,” a public health official said.

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