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Andhra Pradesh
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Hyderabad
IN PAIN: A girl suffering from fever undergoing treatment at Government Fever Hospital on Wednesday. HYDERABAD: Two days of incessant rain and the city raises a toast to various strains of virus and bacteria that are known to spell doom for public health. Communicable diseases have at last found the suitable climate to erupt and play havoc with people’s lives. Evidence of various water-borne infections and fevers such as malaria, viral fever, typhoid and diarrhoea along with conjunctivitis and severe respiratory tract infections, has surfaced in various parts of the city. The condition sounds alarm bells for the civic authorities who are still asleep under the cosy covers of delayed monsoons. The situation is cause for some concern especially in the urban slums marked by absence of basic facilities like safe drinking water and sanitation. Dirt, squalor and unpicked garbage in certain deprived pockets of the city and suburbs are serving as effective breeding ground for mosquitoes and disease causing bacteria. “We had many cases of fever, diarrhoea and common cold in recent times. My two children are down with conjunctivitis,” says Balamani from Ambedkar Nagar near Jawahar Nagar. Sunitha (name changed on request), a teacher from the area reports of four children in her school who were absent with diarrhoea. No precautionary stepsThere is a steady increase in the number of patients visiting the nearby clinics and hospitals though the situation is largely under control. With no visible trace of precautionary measures by the municipal authorities, people are totally left to the mercy of private doctors. Lack of trust in the treatment offered at government hospitals, many patients opt for private clinics that prove to be a burden on their meagre resources. They do not mind and see no difference even if the doctor is not a qualified allopath. As a result, ayurvedic and homoeo doctors, who charge about Rs. 20 to Rs.30 per patient, have become the immediate recourse. Relying on private clinics“We do not have a government hospital in the vicinity and largely rely on private clinics that charge sums ranging from Rs.50 to Rs.100. This is apart from what we spend on medicines which comes to a minimum of Rs. 500 irrespective of the disease,” says R. Shilpabai from Singareni Colony, whose husband is a rickshaw-puller. Showing the skin eruptions on her child, she vouches for the rising number of fever and infection cases in the slum. S. Manohar, Professor of Medicine at Government Fever Hospital, Nallakunta, while confirming a marginal increase in the cases of malaria and viral fever, said that it was s “normal occurrence” in the season.
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