*Disease breaks out as Intense heatwave sweeps Bangladesh*

06 May 2007 08:03:02 GMT
Source: Reuters

DHAKA, May 6 (Reuters) - Hospitals in Bangladesh are struggling to cope
with a sudden rush of Dysentery  patients, with hundreds of new
sufferers arriving every day but no deaths so far, doctors said on Sunday.

The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, in
Dhaka admitted more than 400 patients, mostly children, on average each
day for the past week as temperatures hit 37 degrees Celsius in many
parts of the country.

Most patients went home fully cured within two or three days, hospital
officials said. No one had yet died from diarrhoea in the current outbreak.

Doctors said patients were treated with oral dehydration saline and
medicines that, if applied quickly, prevented possible death.

The disease, caused by people eating rotten food and drinking polluted
water, escalates during summer when drinking water is in short supply,
forcing people to use contaminated sources.

"The number of diarrhoea patients admitted to hospitals across the
country reached nearly 700 in the past 24 hours," one government health
official said on Sunday.

Weather officials said current temperatures were up to 7 Celsius higher
than last summer. They said the heatwave would continue for a few more
days.