The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

At least five people died of and 4,616 were afflicted with diarrhoeal diseases in the capital during the last seven days, according to sources of the Directorate General of the Health Services Control Room and ICDDR,B.

Drinking of pure water and consumption of stale and stinking food were blamed for the outbreak of waterborne diseases.

The floating, slum dwelling and low-income group people in the city are mostly vulnerable to waterborne diseases, as they have a little or no access to safe drinking water, experts said.

Suraiya Begum, Deputy Director of the Disease Control of the Health Directorate, quoting their control room statistics told The New Nation yesterday that a large number of the diarrhoeal patients, who come to the ICDDR,B-run hospital, were slum dwellers while some are floating people.

Majority of the diarrhoeal patients in the Dhaka city come from the areas where supply of water is disrupted very often and where people sometimes get stinky and contaminated water, said Shahadat Hossain, Head of long stay unit of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh.

The areas include Mirpur, Khilgaon, Shajahanpur, Goran, Kazipara, Basabo, Madartek, Mugda, Manda, Moghbazar, Kathalbagan and some parts of the Old Dhaka.

People living in slum areas do not have access to pure water due to short supply and they do not drink water after boiling, said Shahadat.

Floating people are forced to drink contaminated water from roadside sources and they consume stale food at cheaper rates from roadside makeshift shops, he added.

He also informed that 98 per cent of the patients, who came to the ICDDR,B-run hospital this summer, were from Dhaka and 60 per cent of them were adults.

More than 700 people are coming to the ICDDR,B for treatment everyday since last week, he said.

Physicians advised people to eat pure drinking water, maintain hygiene and not to eat food from roadside shops.

"If anyone is afflicted with diarrhoea, he or she have to start drinking oral saline and if the condition continues to deteriorate, he or she should go to the hospitals immediately," said Shahadat.