75% city kids suffer from liver infections
Category :
City |
Posted Date :
15/07/2011
LUDHIANA: Liver-related diseases among children have become quite widespread in the city this monsoon. City hospitals are receiving hundreds of young kids with liver-related infections every week, and this is largely due to the failure of the health department to check contaminated food products being sold on roadside vends, besides supply of contaminated water. People in the city are suffering from various liver diseases like hepatitis A, B, C, E, besides there are also instances of typhoid, jaundice, viral fever, malaria and dysentery.
There has been a major increase in the number of child patients suffering from liver-related problems. There has been an increase in the mortality rate due to hepatitis and this has increased by almost 20% this monsoon season. Children from almost all the areas in the city are suffering from liver-related diseases.
While talking to TOI, Atul, a paediatrician at CMC hospital, said 75% of the kids in the city are suffering from liver-related infections, while more than 25 kids with liver problems visit him every day. He said that there has been a major increase in the number of patients with liver diseases during this season, while adding that the major reason for it was contaminated water being used in preparing food items. He pointed out that the major cause of these diseases was locally made chutneys (sauces) served with snacks, besides milk products including shakes, sauces and ice creams.
Daljit Singh, another paediatrician in the city, who is also the principal of DMC hospital said that diseases like hepatitis, typhoid and viral fever could enlarge the liver, further eliminating enzymes from it. "Fulminant hepatitis is a potentially fatal disease and the mortality rate in the number of patients suffering from it is around 20%", he said, while adding that kids -from new-born babies to the age of 16 years were most prone to this disease due to low immunity level in the body.
Vikas Bansal, a paediatrician at Apollo hospital said that not just contaminated food but junk food that leads to obesity also affects the functioning of the liver, while pointing out that there was a major increase in the patients with liver related diseases. "While I used to get 10 to 12 patients with such problems a month, now I am getting around 100 such patients in the same time period. And this number is likely to increase during the next two months," he added.
Meanwhile, civil surgeon HS Balli said that checks were being conducted on food joints to create awareness among local shopkeepers to keep their places clean and hygienic, while cooking food.
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