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Spurt in water-borne diseases in Mumbai due to monsoon

Though the monsoon brings cheers by filling up parched lakes and dams and boosting up farming, it also leads to a spurt in water-borne diseases, say experts.

Dr Sanjiv Badhwar, ENT specialist at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital says, ‘In rainy season, we find increased number of patients with upper respiratory tract infections, common cold, sinusitis, ear infections. Every year we see about 12-15 per cent rise in these ailments during the monsoon time as compared to other months.’

Dr Anil Ballani, consultant physician at Lilavati Hospital, says, ‘The common ailments during monsoons are water-borne diseases (diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, typhoid and hepatitis or jaundice), air-borne diseases (common cold, viral infections, influenza and pneumonia and vector-borne disease (malaria and dengue through mosquitoes).’

Since the onset of monsoon this year in Mumbai, there have been 4,642 cases of fever in June, 566 malaria, two of leptospirosis, 27 dengue, 80 typhoid and 910 gastro-enteritis.

Last month, there were 3,950 cases of fever and 450 of malaria, as per the data of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

In the first week of August this year, 1,733 people complained of fever while 235 were found suffering from malaria, as per the data.
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