Barishal Correspondent :
The diarrhoea outbreak in the Barishal division has taken a serious turn, as 63 people are becoming infected in every hour in its six districts.
Sources said, the diarrhoea left eight deaths and thousands in hospital so far.
Already 18 out of the 40 upazilas under the six districts of the division are attacked with diarrhoea.
Officials concerned said that Bhola witnessed 8,090 admissions from January
till Wednesday. The number was 4,252 in the last month alone.
Health officials of Barishal district blamed water pollution for this situation.
Dr Shyamal Krishna Mandal, Assistant Director of Barishal Divisional Health Office, said two investigation teams of the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) found bacterial E Coli in the stools of diarrhoea patients.
There are insufficient supply of saline (IV drip) at the government level.
According to the Barishal Divisional Health Office, a total of 32,183 people were infected with diarrhoea in the last three months in six districts of the division.
In the last one month, 17,672 people have been infected.
On average, 1,100 patients were admitted to hospitals every day in the last one week. But now, more than 1,500 patients had been admitted in a span of 24 hours.
Sources said, the 250-bed Bhola General Hospital authorities are not being able to provide seats, patients have placed beds on the floors and even the balconies are packed with patients.
Bhola Civil Surgeon Dr Syed Rezaul Islam said they dispatched 74 teams in the affected areas to combat the crisis.
Among the fatalities, four were in Bakerganj, two in Barguna, and two in Patuakhali in the last one week, the Divisional Health Office confirmed.
Medical sources said, there is a demand for more than 100,000 saline packets in the six districts of the division at the moment, but there are only a few thousand saline sachets in the hospital stocks.
