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Friday, Aug 12, 2005

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National

A flood of patients and overworked doctors

Prachi Pinglay

People crowd city hospitals after wading through water during rains

MUMBAI: After the rains comes the disease. The aftermath of the deluge that crippled Mumbai is now evident in the growing number of people being admitted to the city's hospitals with complaints including high fever and vomiting.

Crowds keep gathering at the gates of Bhabha hospital in Bandra and V.N. Desai hospital in Santa Cruz, one of the badly-hit suburbs of Mumbai. Phones do not stop ringing in the Medical Superintendents' office. Overworked doctors get scolded for not doing more. Politicians and Ministers make their presence felt. And over 150 patients are worried about the diagnosis of their fever, vomiting and stomach-aches.

Outbreak expected

Municipal authorities expected the outbreak of several diseases, given that thousands of people were forced to wade through waist-deep water for several hours, most of it from the overflowing drains, on July 26 and 27. In the last two days, the number of people admitted to just these two hospitals is over 150.

Seventy-year-old, Nirmala, who lives in Khar, is being treated for fever in Desai hospital for the last three days. "My fever had gone up to 102. I am feeling very weak but the fever is decreasing now. My son looks after me. I don't know how I suddenly got this fever," she says while waiting for her son and other family members to come.

At least 100 patients were admitted in Desai hospital in the last two days. "These patients are being treated for viral fever, gastro-enteritis and vomiting. The reports of tests have not come as yet so we cannot say if it is Leptospirosis or cholera or anything. Thousands of people walked through water, drank any water they got. But we are doing our best," says a doctor. At the Desai hospital, separate wards have been allotted for patients suspected to be suffering from infectious diseases.

At the Bhabha hospital, two wards, apart from the usual medical wards, have been vacated to make space for separate accommodation of these patients. There are notices of preventive measures to be taken in all the corridors and entrances of the wards.

Vilas Tare, who has been in Bhabha hospital for the last two days, is anxious about his report. "I got this fever and vomiting because I walked for over six hours that day. I live in Bandra East where conditions were really bad. First I went to a private doctor but I did not feel better. So I got myself admitted here. The doctors are giving medicines but I don't know what exactly has happened to me," he says.

Dr. S. D. Mishra, in-charge at the Bhabha hospital, said though there were more patients, everything was under control. "We have sufficient staff. There is no shortage of medicines. We are waiting for the lab results and only then we will be able to tell if the patients have got leptospirosis or cholera or anything else. Some patients are already responding to the treatment. There is no need to panic," he said.

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