Diarrhea cases have been rising in the last three days
Diarrhea cases in villages in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur district have crossed 1,200, health department officials told news agency PTI on Tuesday.
A total of 868 cases were reported till Monday night.
The villages worst affected by the outbreak are Banh, Jandgi Gujran, Jandali Rajputan, Panyala, Pathiyalu, Niyati, Rangas Chowki Haar, Thain and Sankar in Nadaun, the PTI report said.
The big question is what caused this outbreak?
Contaminated water is said to be the biggest reason for diarrhea disease.
On the Himachal Pradesh diarrhea outbreak, officials of the Jal Shakti department have said that preliminary tests of water samples have not indicated any contamination.
Water to these 47 villages are supplied from nearby khads.
Locals have alleged that the supply water was not chlorinated properly.
2-3 people in each household have fallen ill after consuming the water, villagers have alleged.
What are the symptoms?
The common symptoms of the water borne disease, as seen in the affected villagers in Himachal, are vomiting and fever.
Diarrhea is the condition when a person passes 3 or more loose stools in a day.
Commonly abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, blood in the stool, mucus in the stool and the urgency to empty one's bowel are closely associated with diarrhea.
When the diarrhea persists for a longer duration, say for more than 2-3 days, one should visit a doctor. In cases where the fever does not subside, one should consult a doctor.
Clinically there are three types of diarrhea: acute watery diarrhea, which may last several hours or days, and includes cholera; acute bloody diarrhea, which is also known as dysentery and persistent diarrhea which lasts for more than 14 days.
The lesser known causes of diarrhea
Contaminated water remains the most common cause of diarrhea, however, in order to be aware of the disease one should know the other lesser known causes.
The other causes of diarrhea are: food allergy, Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, eating foods that are hard on the digestive system, food poisoning, laxative abuse, malabsorption of certain nutrients, and over intake of supplements.
Other serious causes like cancer and gastrointestinal surgery can also lead to diarrhea.
Dehydration and diarrhea
Dehydration is a serious side effect of diarrhea which should be treated immediately. Frequent passing of stools drains out water content and electrolyte from the body as a result of which the patient gets dehydrated and weak very soon.
One should get it treated from the doctor at the earliest.
How to treat diarrhea?
One needs to drink sufficient water every day. In order to compensate for the water loss and the electrolyte loss from the body one should take oral rehydration salts (ORS) solution as well. The water should be boiled properly and cooled before drinking.
One can take zinc supplements as well, but only after consultation with a doctor. These supplements reduce diarrhea and are associated with a 30% reduction in stool volume.
When does diarrhea get serious?
Diarrhea gets serious and needs immediate medical attention when the person gets dehydrated, has a fever above 102 F and has blood and/ or mucus in the stool.
Severe abdominal pain or rectal pain also makes it necessary to go to a doctor.
As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), diarrhoeal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old, and was responsible for the deaths of 370,000 children in 2019.
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