Diarrhoea breaks out in Rajshahi
200 hospitalised in three days
Staff Correspondent, Rajshahi
More than 200 people, including 43 children, have been admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital in last three days following an outbreak of diarrhoea in the city and its suburbs.Hospital sources said more patients are pouring in, but no death has so far been reported. More patients are also being treated in different private clinics. The disease has also broken out in nine upazilas of the district. At the hospital, diarrhoeal patients overflowed the observation ward into the veranda outside. The hospital has witnessed a rise in the number of diarrhoeal patients this month, but the figure shot up unexpectedly after the weather turned cold on Friday. "Such a rush of diarrhoeal patients is a bit unusual," said Dr Santosh Kumar Sarkar, emergency medical officer of the hospital. "The cold is certainly not the reason for the disease, but unhygienic food coupled with cold might have aggravated the situation," he said. Supply water might have been contaminated, a source in Rajshahi City Corporation said, adding that the Public Health Engineering Department found micro-organisms in the supply water last week. Hospital sources said the stock of saline used to treat diarrhoeal and cholera patients has been exhausted, and the patients are being forced to buy their own medicine.
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