HYDERABAD, May 6: The Sindh health services department has declared emergency in all hospitals of Sindh and sought an additional grant of Rs2 million from the government to meet immediate medical requirements in wake of a sudden rise in cases of diarrhoea and gastroenteritis.

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, the director-general of the health services, Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi, said water reservoirs in Shahdadkot and Jacobabad districts remained the basic cause of gastroenteritis because highly contaminated water was being provided to people causing diarrhoea and gastroentritis.

“While we have complete arrangements for provisions of medical treatment to gastroenteritis and diarrhoea patients yet we have demanded Rs2 million from the Sindh government and I have declared emergency in all hospitals under my control”, said the DG health services.

He said all the EDOs had been alerted to send him report daily regarding gastroenteritis and diarrhoea cases.

“In the Hamal lake area water tanks were not cleaned for years while people were filling tanks with fresh water but it ultimately got contaminated due to environmental degradation of tanks and thus leading to stomach diseases”, he said.

Likewise, in Jacobabad the same thing happened where water reservoir was also contaminated and polluted.

He said that 111 cases were reported to the Chandka Medical Hospital, 96 to the Mehar taluka hospital and 35 in Warah.

He said in last 20 days around 819 cases of gastroenteritis and one death were reported in Jacobabad in the last two days from April 10 followed by 767 in Larkana.

About 1,954 cases were reported in Badin, 67 (Thatta), 66 (Naushero Feroze), 60 (Sanghar), 113 (Sukkur), 300 (Shikarpur), 37 (Nawabshah), 175 (Matiari), 31 (Umerkot), 543 (Khairpur), 98 (Dadu), 378 (Mirpurkhas), 3,563 (Ghotki) and 8,971 (Karachi).

“Normally gastroenteritis cases were reported during the summer season but media needed to be cautious in this regard because if every isolated case is reported as outbreak of gastroenteritis it will lead to panic among the community at large”, he claimed.

He said when someone suffer from diarrhoea it ultimately affect working of heart as there was deficiency of water which may result in cardiac arrest.

He said gastroenteritis broke out normally due to infection which was caused due to intake of something which was injurious to health.

He said a cell had been set up in his office since April 27 and all EDOs would send their reports to him regarding gastroenteritis cases. He urged the people to take precautionary measures regarding general cleanliness around them and avoid eating substandard food, fruits, and soft drinks at public places.

“The health services department will conduct daily tests of water in laboratories of the Sindh University and LUMHS to check quality of water supplied from the River Indus which would now start getting Manchhar lake’s water as well”, he said.

He said so far all ingredients of water such as conductivity, chlorides, TDS, sodium and hardness were within permissible limits and were no threat to human health.

The health official said an additional grant of Rs2 million had been sought while all EDOs had been alerted by him to check cases of water-borne diseases or gastroenteritis.

He said health officials would only certify those deaths on account of waterborne which were examined by doctors in hospitals.

“Although it is not my job but these water sampling will be conducted because it is in the interest of general public otherwise it was primarily the job of HDA and Wasa”, he said.

He said water samples would be taken near the Jamshoro Thermal power house and at the Kotri barrage upstream.