The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Rain recedes, but leaves illness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 29, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Rain recedes, but leaves illness

Staff Reporter

City hospitals see rise in diarrhoea cases

A DIFFERENT DELUGE: Hospitals in the twin cities are full of those suffering from seasonal fevers. — Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: The city has found a slight respite from rain in the last couple of days, but not its hospitals. The number of Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases (ADD) is on a steady rise, spurred on by water contamination.

From 173 cases in January to 331 in April, the number has now gone up to over 1,500 in May, June and July put together, at the Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases (Fever Hospital) at Nallakunta. ADDs include water-borne diseases like gastritis, cholera and gastro encephalitis apart from regular monsoon features like jaundice and malaria, which top the list along with diarrhoea.

No cause for alarm

However, authorities at both hospices maintain that the situation is not alarming and that this is quite natural during monsoons.

"We have to be worried if there are no diseases at all during this season. That will be really unnatural for Hyderabad, given the sanitary conditions here," quips one official.

While there are at least 20 cases of diarrhoea at Fever Hospital daily, the number of malaria cases in June is 79, compared to 38 in May.

Six confirmed cases of gastroenteritis were reported till June. As for cholera, after no cases from January till March, 35 were reported from April to June.

Typhoid cases

The number of typhoid cases (enteric fever) too has shown an increase, from 95 in May to 128 in June.

There were 148 cases reported in April.

Tip of the iceberg

In Niloufer Hospital at Red Hills too, the situation is similar. Apart from 15 to 20 diarrhoea cases daily, the overall number of daily admissions has jumped from 80-100 to 100-110.

Another angle, however, which could cause concern in official quarters, is that statistics from Fever Hospital or Niloufer Hospital can never be conclusive. "Only a fraction of patients from Hyderabad and surrounding areas go to these two hospitals.

There are over 50 private hospitals, clinics and primary health care centres where the situation must be similar," says an official.

"The actual scenario is beyond these statistics."

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