http://www.newagebd.com/2008/may/11/met.html#1
New Age, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Drinking water crisis exposes city people to diarrhoea
Five die, 4,616 afflicted in one week
By Alpha Arzu
At least five people died of and 4,616 were afflicted by diarrhoeal
diseases in the capital during the past seven days due to lack of pure
drinking water and consuming stale and stinking food, according to
sources at the Directorate General of Health Services control room and
ICDDR,B.
The floating, slum dwelling and low-income group people in the city
are mostly vulnerable to waterborne diseases, especially diarrhoeal
diseases, as they have a little or no access to safe drinking water
and they mostly consume stale and stinking food, said experts.
Suraiya Begum, deputy director of disease control of the health
directorate, quoting their control room statistics told New Age on
Saturday that a large number of the diarrhoeal patients, who come to
the ICDDR,B-run hospital, were slum dwellers while some are floating
people, who have no specific accommodation in the city.
Majority of the diarrhoeal patients in the Dhaka city come from the
areas where supply of water are disrupted very often and where people
sometimes get stinky and contaminated water, said Shahadat Hossain,
head of long stay unit of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal
Diseases Research, Bangladesh.
The areas include Mirpur, Khilgaon, Shajahanpur, Goran, Kazipara,
Basabo, Mothertek, Mugda, Manda, Moghbazar, Kant-halbagan and parts of
Old Town.
Shahadat Hossain said people living in slum areas did not have
proper access to pure water due to short supply and they did not drink
water after boiling.
Floating people are forced to drink contaminated water from
roadside sources and they consume stale food at cheaper rates from
roadside makeshift shops, he added.
He also informed that 98 per cent of the patients, who visited the
ICDDR,B-run hospital this summer, were from Dhaka and 60 per cent of
them were adults.
He said they were receiving severely affected diarrhoeal patients,
who needed indoor treatment at least for three days, since the past
week when more than 700 people, on average, visited the hospital with
diarrhoeal diseases every day.
Physicians suggested people to eat pure drinking water, maintain
hygiene and not to eat food from roadside shops.
If anyone is afflicted with diarrhoea, he/she have to start
drinking oral rehydration salts and if the condition continues to
deteriorate, he/she should go to hospitals immediately, Shahadat said.
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