Editorial»
Fingers crossed
KATHMANDU, APR 18 -
In the wake of an increasing number of diarrhoea patients visiting hospitals around the country, the government has declared the first three months of Nepali New Year (starting this week) as a danger period for diarrhoea epidemics. An average of 14 people with diarrhoea visit Sahid Sukraraj Tropical Hospital in Teku in the capital on a daily basis. The number of diarrhoea patients at Teku, as well as at other healthcare centres around the country, has witnessed a spike since the last week of March. Diarrhoea patients are also becoming disconcertingly common in the Mid Western district of Jajarkot where over 150 people lost their lives owing to the disease last monsoon. The main reason behind the diarrhoea outbreak in Jajarkot, as is the case elsewhere in Nepal, is a lack of clean drinking water as the usual pool of pure water shrinks during an extended dry spell. In the Valley, dilapidated sewerage and water pipes pose the biggest health concerns; it is not uncommon to find sewerage pipes leaking their contents onto the rusty, old pipes carrying drinking water.
Officially, 20 percent of the national population is without access to clean drinking water. Considering the poor water management system, the actual proportion is likely to be much higher. The scarcity of clean drinking water puts people at increased risk of contracting water-borne diseases as they are forced to rely on unsafe sources to meet their daily water needs. The risk of an epidemic is particularly high in the rainy season.
Government health experts have advised people to avoid eating food products sold roadside and frequently eating out. Besides issuing these simple heath warnings, the government, to its credit, has put in place added infrastructure to deal with any epidemic. The Health Ministry remains on high alert for any epidemic outbreak. It has recently completed the distribution of essential medicine and equipment to all 75 districts and set aside additional budget and medicine for 16 high-risk districts; rapid action teams have been arranged for in every district.
But averting an epidemic and managing one if it cannot be avoided will call for much more: there needs to be far greater level of coordination between government and non-government health workers than was witnessed during the Jajarkot epidemic last year. Another big hurdle will be overcoming the acute shortage of medical personnel who can be deployed to far-flung places on short notice. Last year’s outbreak in Mid Western and Western Nepal was an example of how not to handle a health crisis: with no mechanism in place to alert the authorities about a fast-spreading epidemic, a dismal level of coordination among those delivering healthcare services in the affected areas and very few sources of clean drinking water in the high-risk areas.
The government seems to have learnt from its past mistakes and made some vital arrangements to avert a disaster of similar scale this year. But the proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating: if these mechanisms actually work, there is no doubt that countless lives will be saved.
Posted on: 2010-04-19 08:06
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