Gurung, a mother of two who toils as a construction labor, now thinks that the dumplings were not hygienic enough. [break]
"The eatery might have served me stale momos that gave me nausea and diarrhea," she grumbled. Gurung said she came to the hospital after she got no relief from diarrhea throughout the night.
She said that her two children frequently suffer from diarrheal problems.
The recurrent diarrhea attack in her family, however, could be because of another reason. Gurung admitted that she never boils water even though she knows that the water in the capital is not safe to drink.
"You know how costly a cylinder of gas is. How can people like us who are struggling to just survive afford a separate cylinder to boil water," she said.
With the rise in temperature, major hospitals of capital are seeing an increasing number of patients with jaundice, viral fever, typhoid fever and diarrheal diseases.
The Teku hospital, which is mostly visited by patients suffering from infectious ailments, said that cases like diarrheal disease, snake bites, kalajar, typhoid fever and jaundice have gone up in recent days.
"We are getting five to six diarrheal patients each day," said Shankar Pandey, a senior auxiliary health worker at the hospital.
Diarrheal patients tend to visit hospitals only when they become serious. "In normal stage, they consume medicines and oral rehydration at home," he added. The hospital, which has been operating a separate gastro ward to treat diarrheal patients, expects more diarrheal patients during the monsoon.
Pandey said that the people who are careless about what they consume suffered most from diarrheal problems.
"Patients themselves tell us that they might have contracted the disease after eating street foods like panipuri and chatpate and stale foods," Pandey added. According to him, poor people are more vulnerable to such health hazards. "They do not have access to proper sanitation and are more likely to eat at cheap hotels that serve unhygienic foods," he added.
Dr Sher Bahadur Pun of the hospital said that people compromise with their health despite knowing everything.
"We know that we must wash our hands before we eat, but do not strictly follow it. Everybody knows roadside eateries are not hygienic but such food stalls have been doing good business," said Dr Pun. He said the problems will not lessen until we change our eating behavior.
Dr Pun said that vendors who sell panipuri are the major source of such diseases. "People often do not ask about the quality of the water the vendors use. They never question the vendors why they dip their bare hand into the water instead of using clean gloves," he said.
He said that a lot of people suffer from typhoid fever that is caused by salmonella bacteria that breeds in poor sanitation.
In absence of proper quality control mechanism, unhygienic foods that cause food poisoning are sold rampantly in the capital.
"One can get bacterial infection, after eating street foods," said Dr Rajesh Shah, another doctor at Teku hospital. He asked people to drink as much as possible to keep themselves dehydrated. Dr Shah also urged people to be sure beforehand that the food they consume are safe.
He said the fruits sold in the market these days may not be as healthy as they seem. "Nowadays most of the fruits are caused to ripen using hazardous chemicals. Such fruits are not good for health," he added.
He asked people to wash such fruits properly before consuming. He also urged people to make sure that raw foods are washed properly.
Dr Sudamsu KC, chief consultant at the Center for Liver Disease in Bijulibazaar, said the number of patients with jaundice and typhoid fever increases in monsoon.
He said that contaminated water and food are mainly responsible for such infections. "Eating fruits is not bad but contaminated fruits bring people to hospital beds," he said. He asked the people to avoid juices made unsafely with flies hovering around. Dr KC said poor sanitation is the cause of seasonal jaundice. He said that water borne diseases like diarrhea, jaundice, typhoid, cholera are preventable if we are careful.
"People often blame hot climate as causing such diseases, but we must understand that it is not the only cause," he said. He said that until and unless we change our eating habit, we will always be exposed to health hazards.
KMC to launch campaign against waterborne diseases
KATHMANDU, April 7: The Health Department of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that the office is planning to organize awareness campaigns to make people aware about diseases. The metropolis said that a lot of people residing in the metropolis are vulnerable to diarrheal disease. Every year scores of people get infected with diarrhea and cholera. Diarrhea can sometimes be deadly.
The KMC said that it will coordinate with other government agencies to organize the awareness campaign. "We will coordinate with government and different non government organizations (NGOs)," said Dr Baburam Gautam, chief of the department. He hoped District Public Health Office (DPHO), Kathmandu, Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD), Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited and several other NGOs and INGOs will support KMC in the awareness campaign.
Gautam said that awareness campaigns are necessary to reduce the possible threats from waterborne disease. The metropolis said that about one fourth of the people residing in the KMC are poor and deprived of proper sanitation facilities. Last year, too, KMC launched such campaign after several cases of cholera were reported in capital. The metropolis was criticized for launching campaign at the end of monsoon. "This year we are preparing to launch such campaign before the monsoon," Gautam said. He said that health workers of the metropolis, urban community health volunteers and representatives of clubs and NGOs will reached out to the communities to make them aware about the risks. The department said that special attention would be given to improve the situation at slum settlements, where people lack access to safe drinking water, sewage system and health and electricity facilities.
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