Rawalpindi: Gastroenteritis (also known as gastro), which is a group of diseases caused by various viruses, bacteria, their toxins and parasites, has claimed a total of 77 lives so far this year at two of the three teaching hospitals including Holy Family Hospital and Benazir Bhutto Hospital in town.
The mortality rate of gastroenteritis, generally known as water and food borne infections, has been recorded as 11.52 per cent among the admitted patients at the two allied hospitals from January to the middle of July this year.
Data collected by ‘The News’ has revealed that out of a total of 668 patients who were suffering from serious complications of the disease and were admitted to the HFH and BBH for management, as many as 77 could not survive.
According to Principal Rawalpindi Medical College and In-charge Allied Hospitals Professor Dr. Jahangir Sarwar Khan, the HFH had to admit a total of 472 gastro patients with serious complications of which 47 died of the disease while of 169 gastro patients admitted at the BBH, some 30 could not survive. From January to the middle of July this year, Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital admitted as many as 27 patients suffering from gastroenteritis though no death due to the disease was reported at the RTH this year.
Gastroenteritis is an infection of the stomach and intestine and its most common symptoms are diarrhoea and vomiting. It is important that during and after monsoon, the incidences of gastro records a sharp upward trend every year while it is observed that the majority of people do not take the disease as serious as it is.
Experts say that it is time to sensitise public about gastroenteritis that is considered as the number five cause of death in Pakistan. Complications of gastroenteritis claim a number of lives every year in the country and according to health experts, the major reasons behind death among gastroenteritis patients include late presentation to the hospitals, acute kidney failures and ignorance of the patients and their families.
It is worth mentioning here that in patients of gastro in old age, multiple factors add to their miseries like pre-existing diseases related to heart, kidney and lungs along with hypertension and diabetes.
Experts say that there is a need to create awareness among the public on danger signs and factors among gastro patients that include intractable vomiting, altered consciousness, decreased or absent urine formation, diarrhoea with bleeding, post diarrhoea obstruction and intestinal perforation and age of patient over 65 years or below five years. If any of these factors are present, the patient must be taken immediately to the nearest hospital for lifesaving management.
For a patient with diarrhea, only ORS is the standard therapy, at least one packet in one litre of water daily. Many studies have revealed that the initial six hours of the onset of acute gastro is the golden time to save the life and gastrointestinal tract of the patient. If a patient is treated within six hours with IV fluids and medicine, the chances of complications are reduced to less than five per cent.