As the winter gets more severe in Bangladesh, especially in Dinajpur, the number of cold-related patients began increasing.
Dinajpur's Aurobindo Shishu Hospital, M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital and 250-bed General Hospital have been seeing a surge in children and elderly patients admitted with cold-related diseases.
As many as 107 children have been getting treatment at the Aurobindo Shishu Hospital. An average of 40 patients are admitted every day. Around 280 to 300 children have received treatment in the last week.
Most of the patients have been suffering from pneumonia and diarrhoea. The elderly and children have also been suffering from flu, fever, whooping cough and other respiratory diseases.
Dinajpur's M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital has 53 beds in the pediatric ward. Till Saturday morning, 31 children have been seen receiving treatment. An average of 40 children are being treated outdoors in the hospital as well.
Meanwhile, the 250-bed general hospital has 30 beds in the pediatric ward but 35 children were admitted. Treatments were also being provided outdoors.
As the number of children and elderly patients soars, the hospital authorities have been struggling to provide treatment to all of them.
“Children, who were having difficulty breathing, were being given nebulizers. Elderly people have been coming to the hospitals with various respiratory diseases including asthma,” said Dinajpur Civil Surgeon Dr AHM Borhan Ul Isalm Siddiqui.
However, he assured that there will not be any problem tackling with the patient surge as the government has enough medicines to deal with cold-related diseases.
He urged everyone to be extra careful in this cold season. “Always wear clean clothes and be extra cautious. Children and elderly people should be brought to the nearest hospitals if they are sick,” he said.
“If careful, everyone can stay healthy in this harsh winter,” he added.
