Disease follows Doaba floods

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, August 22

The deluge has taken a toll on the health of villagers in Shahkot subdivision, the worst hit in Punjab by the rain fury. Residents are suffering from diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, fungal infection and skin diseases owing to contaminated water and poor sanitation. In Mandala, Gidderpindi and Mandala Channa villages in Lohian, nearly 40 per cent residents are afflicted with fungal and skin diseases, say doctors monitoring patients at relief camps. 

“The psychological trauma of having been displaced and rendered homeless is causing respiratory problems and hypertension,” they say. The condition of patients who are diabetic is even worse. A senior official said they had received 60 patients with increased sugar levels up to 500 mg/dl, a cause for concern.

“We are treating them on priority. We have ordered more medicines to overcome shortages,” he said.  Besides medical teams, mobile medical teams too are providing succour to the people. “Our teams are using boats to reach out to the people for medical checkup and for providing medicines,” he said.

Senior Medical Officer Dr AS Duggal said the real challenge would be after the water had receded. “Stagnant water would breed mosquitoes and water-borne diseases would go up,” he explained.