Gastro-enteritis spreading rapidly in southern Punjab

Though gastro-enteritis is spreading rapidly in Southern Punjab and rest of the country yet no step has been taken to save the lives of the masses. According to official figures 20,055 patients have been identified as Gastro patients administered treatment in different hospitals across the province.
In Multan, Lahore 261 and 221 gastro-enteritis patients have been treated in the last 24 hours. However, doctors believe the number of patients could be much more if kept in mind the category of those patients, which seek treatment privately. Gastro-enteritis is caused mainly by contaminated water, and intake of unhygienic food.
According to statistics available in this regard, total 1,040 patients of gastro-enteritis are reported during last 24 hours across Punjab. Around 185 gastro-enteritis are identified officially in Faisalabad, 105 in Jhang, 100 in Bahawalnagar, 50 in Rawalpindi, 30 in Gujrat, 28 patients in T.T Singh and 24 in Lodhran district respectively during the last 24 hours.
An alarming increase in the gastro-enteritis (acute watery diarrhea) patients has been reported in almost all the cities of the Punjab districts with Multan and Lahore on the top as far as the official statistics are concerned.
The doctors as well as the Director General Health Office medical experts said that the figures of gastro-enteritis patients reported officially indicated an outbreak of gastro-enteritis in the Punjab especially in Multan, Lahore and Faisalabad districts.
They believed that emerging situation demanded declaration emergency in the public and CDG hospitals on part of government to avoid from any untoward incident. However, DG Health Punjab, Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam claimed that the rise in number of cases is expected in this time of the year.
The children below 5 years are most affected among the others. The statistics gathered from the Children Hospital Lahore revealed that from 130 to 150 children suffering from gastro-enteritis (acute watery diarrhea) are being treated daily.
The Children Hospital sources revealed that around 2,000 children have been rushed to the hospital with complaints of gastro-enteritis (acute watery diarrhea) during last 13 days of this month only. The numbers of patients are increasing with passage of time, the doctors disclosed.
They said that there was a dire need to issue special instructions to the all the public hospital administrations to make arrangements to cope with the increasing load of patients instead of referring them to Children hospital. A senior doctor seeking anonymity said that the doctors of other public hospitals are referring the patients of gastro-enteritis to the Children's Hospital, which have only 400 beds.
"The number of gastro-enteritis children are three times more than the capacity of the hospital", he revealed. He said that the Children Hospital was established only to provide treatment to the children suffering from critical diseases or other cases requiring special handling. The DG Office sources claimed that despite unprecedented increase of gastro-enteritis patients, no causality has been reported in any part of the Punjab Province.
The statistics further revealed that 20,055 gastro-enteritis patients are officially reported in the current month from June 1st to June 27th in all the districts of the province. Out of these total numbers, 9050 patients are being administered treatment in the Out Patient department (OPD) of the public hospitals while the rest 11,005 patients have been admitted for further treatment.
According to details, in the first week of this month total 1,024 patients of gastro-enteritis were reported out of which 574 were admitted while rest 450 given treatment in Outdoor department. The health authorities got alarmed when rapid increase of patients was recorded in the very next week as 3,111 patient of gastro-enteritis are reported in all the districts of the province.
Out of which 2,427 patients are treated in Outdoor departments while rests 2864 are admitted for further treatment. The situation further deteriorated as total 5,787 patients are reported in the third week of this month out of which 3,282 patients are admitted and 2,505 others provided treatment in Outdoor departments. Similarly, the statistics revealed that 5,928 patients are brought with complaints of gastro-enteritis in the public hospitals.
Out of them 3,435 patients are admitted while others treated in outdoors. While from June 25 to June 27, total 2,025 patients were rushed to the hospitals out of them 850 were admitted and 1,175 sent back to their homes after providing treatment in Outdoor departments.