Desk Report,
Winter diarrhea: 675 children admitted to ICDDRB every day
Winter diarrhea has increased among children. An average of 675 children are admitted to the International Center for Diarrhea Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB) Mohakhali Hospital with diarrhea every day. A large portion of them are suffering from rotavirus-related diarrhea. Deaths are also occurring.
Winter diarrhea: 675 children admitted to ICDDRB every day
Doctors and researchers at ICDDRB say that the number of patients is higher than normal. Many children are being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Many children are coming to the hospital with symptoms of ‘hypernatremia’ due to incorrect saline feeding at home. 15 children have died since November, according to ICDDRB sources.
Winter diarrhea is somewhat different from diarrhea or cholera that occurs at other times of the year. The main pathogen of diarrhea in children during winter is rotavirus. Shoheb Bin Islam, assistant scientist at the Hospital Branch of the Nutrition and Clinical Services Department of ICDDRB, told Prothom Alo on Thursday, ‘A lot of children are coming to the hospital with rotavirus-related diarrhea. The number of patients is about 25 percent more than last year. Some children are in very bad condition.’ Yesterday, Thursday afternoon, when I visited the ICDDRB’s Mohakhali Hospital, I saw that children from different areas of the capital, the surrounding areas of the capital and other districts were also admitted with diarrhea. Each child is accompanied by his mother. Some have their fathers or other relatives by their bedsides. Mahima Akhter from Gazipur came to the hospital yesterday morning with her one-year-old daughter Umaiya Binte Mustakim.
Mahima Akhter told Prothom Alo that her daughter had fever, vomiting and diarrhea since last Tuesday. A local doctor advised saline, paracetamol and antibiotics. It did not work. The child started to weaken. She came to the hospital without taking any risks.
On the first day of the year, i.e. January 1, 850 children were admitted to the hospital with diarrhea. According to the information provided by the ICDDRB, more than nine hundred patients are being admitted on some days. If we calculate the patients admitted from November 24 to January 1, it is seen that 850 people were admitted daily. Of these, 79.4 percent were children. They are under five years of age. A review of the statistics shows that the number of children aged two years or younger is more than 76 percent.
Talking to scientists and doctors of ICDDRB, it was learned that children are coming to the hospital with various types of diarrhea. Among them, rotavirus-induced diarrhea is more common. This causes the child to have frequent stools. The color of the stool is somewhat milky white.
