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Rains leave many gasping for health

Staff Reporter

Bangalore hospitals record sharp rise in number of asthma cases

Five admitted with severe asthma at St. John’s Hospital
12 amoebiasis cases, three of jaundice reported

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

WELCOME RESPITE: Many drains like this one were overflowing in Bangalore on Friday after unseasonable rains.

Bangalore: With the intense spells of downpour last week that brought temperatures down to 19.9 degrees Celsius on Friday, it certainly does not feel like summer is near. While Bangalore has received the much needed respite from sweltering heat, the fluctuations in temperature, the rainfall and high humidity have brought upon the city its share of respiratory and gastric infections.

Over the last four days, Girija Singh, Professor and Head of Department, Internal Medicine, St. John’s Hospital and Medical College, has seen a surge of asthma patients.

“It is not unusual for me to see four to five asthma patients every day. But the number of severe cases — those needing hospitalisation — has increased,” she says. Five persons have been admitted for severe asthma attacks in as many days at St. John’s Hospital, she says.

While some people have “perennial” asthma, others develop asthma seasonally, she says. “Fickle weather that we have seen over the last two weeks can make the body susceptible to viral infections, which can lead to asthma. This, combined with the huge rise in air pollution and suspended particulate matter, also triggers bronchial attacks,” says Dr. Singh.

The rainfall over the last week has clearly increased the risk of food and water contamination (the 94.5 mm measured on a single day last week was an all-time record for March in Bangalore). Ten persons have been admitted with acute cases of gastroenteritis and dysentery in Victoria Hospital in the last five days, according to hospital authorities.

The Out Patient Department of the hospital has seen six cases of typhoid, 12 cases of amoebiasis, and three cases of jaundice in the last four days. And St. John’s Hospital received its first case of severe cholera for the season, according to Dr. Singh.

K.R. Raveendra, Consultant Physician and Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine at the Victoria Hospital, says the incidence of such food-borne and water-borne diseases normally rises during the early monsoon, but have surfaced a couple of months earlier this year with the recent rains.

“Avoid eating uncooked food such as salad, and make sure you boil water for at least 20 minutes,” he says.

More rain

March is the unpredictable “transition month” into summer, say officials at the Meteorological Centre. This month alone, the temperatures have soared to a maximum of 32.6 degrees Celsius and fallen to a minimum of 14.4 degrees Celsius. And sporadic rain is fairly common during this season,

Met officials say, as low pressure and cyclonic systems develop around this time. The city received 13.4 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.

There is no wishing away the rain just yet: the low pressure over the Kerala coast is bound to bring more rain in the next 48 hours, according to the Met office.

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