Children pour into OPDs with diarrhoea

KARACHI: The persisting heat wave has left hundreds of children sick across the province and hospitals have reported a 50 per cent increase in cases of diarrhoea, vomiting and sunstroke.

Doctors warned parents to protect their children from sun exposure and provide them plenty of clean drinking water.

National Institute of Child Health (NICH) sources said that they had seen a 40 to 50 per cent increase in patients and the same was reported at the OPD and Emergency Ward of Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK).

NICH Director Professor Jamal Raza said his hospital, which is the biggest state-run facility for children in Karachi, was getting 30 to 35 seriously ill children who were being admitted to the hospital daily. The children suffering from diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases were mainly coming from the unplanned settlements of Karachi, he said.

CHK Head of Paediatrics Ward-II Prof Iqbal Memon told PPI on Saturday that they were also getting a large number of patients. A majority of cases are heat-related and waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, hepatitis A and E, typhoid and gastroenteritis.

Dr Khalid Zuberi of the Children’s Hospital in North Nazimabad said stale food and rotten fruit and vegetables have to be avoided at all costs. The Pakistan Medical Assocation’s Prof Idrees Adhi said about three million people suffer from waterborne diseases in Pakistan and about 1.2 million die from them.

He said the use of boiled water is a must in hot weather. A grown man should drink 15 to 18 glasses of boiled water during 24 hours in hot weather, he suggested.

Dr Qaiser Sajjad of the PMA said people were also suffering from ear, nose and throat problems because they were drinking extra-chilled beverages.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2010.