Dr. P K Sasidharan
Now it is acute diarrhoea in 400 persons!
Last week it was hepatitis A in several hundreds!!
Yesterday’s news -400 residents of a single flat in Kerala had acute diarrhoea and vomiting after drinking contaminated water( please read the attached news).
Previous week newspapers wrote about viral hepatitis and painted a bigger picture of that water borne disease and recommended mass vaccination as a solution
Let us realise that water born diseases occur only because of our neglectful attitude to priorities.
Why water borne disease like Bacillary diarrhoea, Typhoid, hepatitis A and cholera are not at all a problem in developed countries?
Why it is then a problem only of countries like India?
Please note- the entire USA does not have water borne diseases like bacillary diarrhoea, hepatitis A and typhoid.
But on an average they still get a mere 450 typhoid cases in one year. These were the patients who visited USA from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Mexico who developed typhoid as they reached there. They were carrying the bacteria along with them.
This number is nothing compared to millions who develop typhoid and such diseases in our country
Now I am reminded of the recommendations by some people advising Kerala government for making mass vaccination as a strategy to prevent hepatitis A.
I would say that mass vaccination with hepatitis A vaccine is recommended out of ignorance only.
Vaccinating selected groups when needed- that too as decided by doctors who manage hepatitis A cases is a different issue
Even that would not be needed once safe drinking water becomes available in pipes as in all other countries.
Let us note that we are laying gas pipes to provide LPG gas for all houses in cities across India at a huge cost- True it is a great and decisive move as it had been already done in developed nations
Why there is no similar move to provide safe drinking water in India, which the developed countries had provided decades before providing piped gas.
As compared to LPG gas through pipes, providing potable drinking water through secure pipes is much more easier, cheaper and a lot more essential for the people
We need to provide 100 percent safe drinking water through such secure pipes for all the people.
But no corporate lobby or vaccine lobby will come forward with this as a recommendation to the government, because the profit goes to the people only
The water born diseases will become extinct when we provide safe drinking water in all the public taps, as had happened almost a century ago in developed countries.
They had wisely invested money on safe drinking water through pipes long back – that is the only thing we should to do to prevent all these water borne diseases, including hepatitis A in one go.
But genuine safe drinking water is not chlorinating or boiling the water, or providing bottled mineral water and it is anyway not possible to provide water filters for every home anyway. Easier would be to provide potable water in secured pipes.
Please realise that water in wells and water bodies get contaminated only because of the unhygienic practices of people and the closeness of septic tanks to wells and other water sources.
The water in wells in each small plot in cities will get contaminated due to the closeness of septic tanks and wells- the distance needed is a minimum of 15 meters, but most often it is less than ten meters
Therefore let us provide safe drinking water through pipes as a priority and improve sanitation facilities and improve their hygienic practices.
As I had been writing always – let me repeat again ‘public health is still a neglected orphan in India’
All governments in India are responsible for this miserable state
Kerala should set an example to rest of India by solving it permanently.
