Twenty-two people with symptoms of acute diarrhoeal disease (ADD) were admitted to the Communicable Disease Hospital and KMC on Friday.
While doctors are picking up patients with diarrhoea through health camps and door-to-door surveys, private doctors are also seeing cases of ADD, as this is the season for it, they say.
“One in every three children who come to my clinic in Mylapore has complaints of diarrhoea. Despite being extremely careful, even my children have diarrhoea,” quips Dr N. Prahlad, paediatrician and paediatric nephrologist from Dr Mehta’s Children’s Hospital, hardly a km from Osonkullam and Bhoopathy Nagar, the worst-hit localities in Chetpet.
“We usually continue to see cases of diarrhoeal disease all through the monsoon. After the monsoon breaks is when we will have to deal with a range of upper respiratory infections and vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue,” Dr Prahlad explains the trend.
Meanwhile, the patients admitted to the government hospitals seem to be responding well to treatment; a total of 30 people were discharged on Saturday. According to the city corporation, two of the four patients treated for cholera have also been discharged.
Meanwhile, over 100 members of All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) on Friday staged a demo against the city corporation condemning poor sanitation, piling up of garbage across the city and demanded preventive measures to tackle cholera outbreak.
Vijayakumar, DYFI’s north Chennai district secretary, said the demo was to condemn the corporation for not taking steps to tackle cholera. AIDWA state secretary K. Radhai said, “The corporation has to take steps on a war-footing to contain diarrhoea. North Chennai is worst affected.”