Hyderabad: There have been 10 deaths in Telangana and 15 deaths in Andhra Pradesh due to diarrhea of children below the age of five. This gives rise to many queries about effective management of the disease.
The World Health Organization has stated that there were 321 diarrhea deaths in India in 2015.
Dr Shyam Sunder, senior pediatrician explained, “The number of deaths reported is not the actual number. The patients often come with acute kidney failures as they are dehydrated and the oral rehydration is not given on time.”
“In children, zinc continues to be a deficiency and that has to be supplemented in children who are coming with recurrent diarrhea,” the doctor added.
Experts state that while knowledge of ORS had improved to 73 per cent, the actual use in practice is only 43 per cent
The government is supplying ORS under the National Rural Health Mission but effective implementation is a major hurdle at the ground level.
Apart from antibiotics, unknown drugs are used to control diarrhoea which leads to resistance and also causes complications. Dr Mohammed Ashraf, pediatrician explained, "Antimicrobials are to be prescribed for bloody stool, cholera, systemic infection or severe malnutrition. But the unwarranted prescription of these drugs to the extent of 30 per is leading to resistance.
Experts state that the incidences of diarrhea continues. There were more than 3,00,000 cases in India but the deaths are grossly under reported.
Dr R K Krishna, senior pediatrician, explained, “The World Health Organisation has been trying to draw focus because they look at these deaths as preventable if intervention is early.”
