Dirty toilets take a toll on health of schoolgirls

It appears that even the best schools in the city do not have clean toilets, for the lazy bladder syndrome is emerging as a big problem for schoolgirls here.

A number of girls are approaching experts of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences ( SGPGIMS) with complaints of lazy bladder syndrome and scar in kidneys. Lazy bladder syndrome is characterized by a large capacity bladder, frequently associated with a significant volume of residual urine. The girls of a specific school alleged that they avoided using the school toilets because they were not clean but filthy. Despite reporting the matter to teachers, nothing had been done by the school administration. And this horror to hit a filthy washroom had adversely affected their health.

Holding urine and stool in absence of good toilets was a big problem for schoolgirls, said director SGPGIMS professor Rakesh Kapoor.

“Recently a number of girls from a noted school came with problems like urine infection and lazy bladder syndrome. It was surprising for me to believe that such high standard schools were not aware about the toilet habits of girls. Despite charging so much money from students, they do not even have clean toilets.”

The girls fare coming for treatment with a history of recurrent urinary infections but without anomalies in the upper urinary tract. The urine returns from the urethra to bladder number of times resulting in infection of lower urinary track.

Initially the girls and their parents were not able to understand the cause of repeated infections and lazy bladder syndrome.

But when the girls from a specific school started coming for treatment frequently, the PGI doctors asked them the reason for holding their urine and all of them had only one answer: the school toilets were so dirty that they were unable to use them.

Professor Rakesh Kapoor said that schools must take care of cleanliness, especially toilets or it would damage the kidneys of kids in the days to come.