Around 200,500 people fell ill by winter-related illnesses in the past two months, resulting in 26 fatalities from respiratory troubles and diarrhoea in different places of the country.
The country’s sky has been overcast with fog for the past few days, with winter intensifying at the same time. The sun remains hidden until noon, compelling many people especially in the northwest region to stay home.
As temperature drops, people start experiencing a cold weather coupled with foggy atmosphere especially in the northwest region of the country. So, the number of patients especially children and elderly people with cold-related diseases has increased across the country recently.
Various cold-related diseases like common cold, influenza, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, tonsillitis, sore throat, asthma, earache, whooping cough and viral diarrhoea are infecting the people mostly children and elderly ones. Many of them were admitted to their respective districts health complexes and general hospitals in the last three days, according to media report. But, the seasonality of influenza has raised a new public health concern in addition to dengue.
Number of patients especially
children and elderly people with
cold-related diseases has increased
across the country
The flu tends to be associated with more body aches and fatigue than a cold and symptoms of the common cold include fevers, coughing and sneezing.
Read More: Stand by cold-hit people immediately
Patients with viral fever and cough have also been thronging hospitals and clinics since a week. If a member of the family has fever, other members are also getting infected and falling sick. All the patients, who are visiting hospitals and clinics, are suffering from various seasonal diseases like fever, cough and throat pain. Therefore, it is difficult for the patients to know whether they are infected with common flu caused by winter or dengue without test. Physicians advised people not to get panicked, requesting them to go to hospitals and clinics to conduct test for diagnosing the diseases. We must all remain cautious about cold-related disease.
Therefore, people have no reason to be panicked but must follow the physicians and experts’ health guideline to protect them. Apart from the cold weather, the dust pollution also causes serious diseases including heart, trouble chronic
respiratory diseases, lung infections and even cancer during the winter.
So, the health ministry should issue instructions to its departments concerned government hospitals, health complexes and all other organisations at the field-level to make people conscious about cold-related diseases and provide treatment properly. All districts and upazilas administration should distribute warm clothes among the distressed to mitigate their sufferings. Apart from the government, the well off sections of the society and different socio- economic organisations of the country will also have to stand beside the cold affected people with the mentality to distribute warm clothes to them as part of social responsibility. Every individual has the responsibility to ensure his or her own protection alongside their family members and the neighbours during the winter season.