Due to heat, city sees rise in viral diarrhoea cases among children
MUMBAI: As the city continues to witness hot and humid weather, paediatricians said they are noticing an unusual rise in the number of viral infection cases among children, especially diarrhoea, which is one of the causes of dehydration.
Paediatrician Dr Bijal Srivastava from Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, Powai said, “Acute diarrhoea in children has gone up in the last few weeks. We recently treated an infant with severe diarrhoea who was hospitalised because of dehydration. His stool was positive for rotavirus.” Dr Srivastava added that most of the diarrhoea cases in children that the team of doctors are seeing today are viral in origin such as norovirus, astrovirus, adenovirus. She also noted that the most common and also the worst is rotavirus as the frequency of passing stools is too high and many have to be hospitalised due to dehydration.
Dr Vishal Parmar, paediatrician, Wockhardt Hospitals, Mira Road said diarrhoea cases are commonly seen in children less than five years of age. “Most of these are viral diarrhoea cases. Very few of them are because of bacterial infections. We have to hospitalise the child if the diarrhoea is causing severe dehydration. Daily, we are seeing 5 to 10 cases of diarrhoea in children in our outdoor patient department.” Dr Suresh Birajdar, neonatologist and paediatrician, Motherhood Hospital, Kharghar said they are seeing diarrhoea cases commonly in infants and kids attending day-care or preschool. Paediatricians are also seeing a rise in hand, foot and mouth diseases caused by viruses. Dr Vaidehi Dande, child specialist and neonatologist, Symbiosis Hospital, Mumbai, said, “Hand, foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious infection and spreads easily.”