Dysentery, not a descent disease
Few days ago, a boy of six years old came to me with parents in toxic condition. He had been suffering from dysentery for last three days with fever, headache, pallor, vomiting, abdominal pain and not passing urine for more then 12 hours. Meticulous physical and laboratory examination confirmed that the boy developed Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome following dysentery (described latter). During summer time, invasive diarrhoea (also called dysentery) is quite common in children as well as in adults in Bangladesh. Hot humid weather, scarcity of drinking water, poor hygiene, taking sugar cane juice, contaminated food and verities of juice, sorbet sold at road side to satisfy thirst, are the risk factors for developing dysentery. Many times, we become confused between diarrhoea and dysentery. Diarrhoea means frequent passage of loose watery stool. When loose stool contains blood associated with abdominal cramp and fever, we call it dysentery or invasive diarrhoea. Diarrhoea is mostly caused by viruses, but dysentery is caused by invading bacteria or protozoa. Diarrhoea episodes are managed by oral rehydration saline (ORS) and Zinc, but in dysentery specific antibiotics are needed along with ORS. Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) is one of the worst complication of dysentery and one of the most common causes of renal failure in children in our country, which needs urgent hospitalisation for proper management. So, during this hot humid summer time, we have to be very careful about drinking water and food. We should take special care for children during school tiffin. Proper hand washing is very important to prevent all diarrhoeal disease. Please take care of your kids.
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