BSS, Dhaka :
Diarrhoeal diseases constitute a major health problem in Bangladesh.
Children are highly vulnerable to the disease cable of taking away their lives in case of negligence. Thousands of episodes of diarrhoea occur in children and adults each day. Diarrhoeal diseases have close biological and socio-economic links to the problems of malnutrition, poor maternal health, high fertility, and child survival.
According to medical experts, symptoms of diarrhea can be broken down into uncomplicated diarrhoea and complicated diarrhoea.
Complicated diarrhoea may be a sign of a more serious illness. Symptoms of uncomplicated diarrhea include: Abdominal bloating or cramps Thin or loose stools Watery stool Sense of urgency to have a bowel movement Nausea and vomiting. In addition to the symptoms described above, the symptoms of complicated diarrhoea include: Blood, mucus, or undigested food in the stool weight loss fever.
One should contact his or her doctor if affected with diarrhoea along with fever more than 24 hours.
If vomiting prevents a diarrhoea patient drinking liquids to replace lost fluids, he or she must rush to hospital on an urgent basis for avoiding the risk of life.
A recent study reveals that most of the children affected with diarrhoea are aged 0-23 months and rotavirus was the leading pathogen.
It has been already reported that up to 5 years of age, every child is expected to suffer from an episode of rotavirus diarrhoea.
The study also says globally rotavirus causes approximately 111 million episodes of diarrhoea and over 400,000 deaths in children under 5 years of age.
Although mortality due to rotavirus diarrhoea decreased worldwide; rotaviral diarrhoea among infant and young children still remains a major public health burden due to higher hospital attendance rate.
In the present study, it has been observed that children with MD more often visited the hospital with rotavirus infection than the children with MSD.
This has been supported by previous reports that mild disease cases substantially became alarming enough, for care seeking in high number at the hospital.
Bangladesh’s water crisis affects both rural and urban areas, and is a matter of both water scarcity and water quality.
While Bangladesh has made commendable progress in supplying safe water to its people, gross disparity in coverage still exists across the country.
Latrine usage is very poor, averaging only 16% in the rural areas. When people lack access to a well or water point, the community must seek other sources for drinking water, usually returning to the traditional unprotected water sources such as ponds or ditches, or walking to distant wells.
These practices dramatically increase the risk of acute bacteriological contamination, leading to greater outbreaks of water-related diseases.
These diseases especially affect children who are especially vulnerable to diarrhoeal diseases.
