They might have arrived a bit late, but surely the rains are here to stay for a while, which means drop in temperatures and congenial conditions for a flare-up of seasonal ailments. While the municipal bodies and health officials are busy chalking out strategies to counter seasonal ailments, at an individual level, physicians point out that public too have to be wary during this season.
The advice from doctors is clear, which is to watch out for what and where you eat food and drink water. With temperatures dropping by a notch and season of festivals approaching, a lot of stress is being given by health care providers on precautions to be taken while consuming drinking water and consuming food. Viral fevers are the most common kind of ailments that are usually experienced during monsoon. In addition, cases of malaria and dengue could start rising in a fortnight or so. The coming months will be ideal for mosquito breeding because of less temperatures and stagnant pools of rain water. Already, private hospitals and general practitioners have started indicating a spike in viral fever cases since a fortnight.
“Most of the seasonal ailments are water borne in nature. Consuming treated drinking water and hot fresh food is very important during this season. Municipal bodies too need to keep a tab on mosquito breeding in stagnant water and properly treating potable water,” says former Superintendent, Gandhi Hospital, B. Balraju. The most common symptoms of viral fevers are low and high grade fever, body pains, throat inflammation, running nose, headache, nasal congestion, muscle and joint pains. In some cases, when the fever is intense, the lymph glands could swell, patients can have fatigue and severe body pains.
Children and pregnant women are always susceptible during this season. “We usually see a large number of viral fever cases among children during this time of the year. Such ailments can’t be avoided but this does not mean that we should not take precautions,” says Professor, Paediatrics, Gandhi Hospital, M. Vasudeva Murali.
With monsoons, come upper respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and flaring up of asthma. “Children and elderly who have diabetes, hypertension, heart and kidney ailments can opt for vaccines to avoid upper respiratory tract infections. But they can do so only after consulting a doctor,” advises senior chest physician at Erragadda Government General and Chest Hospital, K. Subhakar.
