Faruk Rahman:
Due to the intense heat, diarrhea in children has spread widely in the coastal district of Satkhira. The number of children suffering from diarrhea is increasing every day in government and private hospitals.
Pediatricians say that children are suffering from diarrhea due to dehydration in the intense heat. Doctors are advising to feed saline along with breast milk.
All upazila complexes, union health centers, Sadar Hospitals, Medical College Hospitals and private clinics and hospitals in Satkhira district do not have enough beds for children suffering from diarrhea, so treatment is being hampered.
On Saturday, when I visited the children’s diarrhea wards of Satkhira Sadar Hospital and Medical College Hospital, I saw that children suffering from diarrhea from different areas of the district were being admitted and receiving treatment.
Housewife Moyna Khatun from the city’s Munjitpur area at the Medical College Hospital said that her 11-month-old child Arfan Arif was admitted to the hospital in the morning when he fell ill with diarrhea. The housewife said that she had to buy other medicines except saline from outside the hospital.
On this day, housewife Papiya Khatun from Kanaidiya village in Tala upazila admitted her 10-month-old son Rahil Hasan to the diarrhea ward at the Sadar Hospital.
She said that the environment in the diarrhea ward is very unhygienic. Moreover, most of the medicines had to be bought outside the hospital. Nothing else is available here except saline.
According to information received from Satkhira Sadar and Medical College and Basrakari Children’s Hospital, 1,718 children with diarrhea have been admitted to these three health centers in the last 50 days.
Of these, 1,000 children were admitted to the Medical College Hospital, 577 to the Sadar Hospital and 141 to the private children’s hospital.
In addition, doctors said that a large number of children with diarrhea are being treated in the outpatient department of these hospitals every day.
Dr. Md. Shamsur Rahman, a pediatrician and assistant professor at Satkhira Medical College and Hospital, said that in our country, the heat usually starts from March-April. During this time, children’s bodies become dehydrated. As a result, children suffer from diarrhea, fever and vomiting. During this time, it is being advised to feed saline to children along with their mother’s milk. Moreover, care should be taken to ensure that children do not eat rotten food.
He also said that an average of 20 to 25 children with diarrhea are admitted to the Medical College Hospital every day. He said that from March 1 to April 22, more than 1,000 children with diarrhea have been admitted.
Dr. Abdur Rahman, acting resident medical officer of Satkhira Sadar Hospital, said that doctors and nurses are struggling to provide medical care to children suffering from diarrhea due to the lack of adequate beds in the pediatric diarrhea ward of Satkhira Sadar Hospital. The Satkhira Civil Surgeon has been informed to increase the number of beds quickly.
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