Come monsoon and Delhi is plagued by water borne diseases such as Typhoid, Hepatitis, Cholera and the most common viral gastroenteritis.
These diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms that are commonly transmitted in contaminated fresh water. Infection commonly takes places during bathing, washing, drinking, while preparing food, or while eating.
In this situation, we need to understand that the primary need is potable drinking water.
The first question that we need to ask ourselves is that if the drinking water at home is safe? And in Delhi, majority of places have no safe drinking water. Thus in most cases, people turn to RO systems. But is RO treated water always safe? Sometimes despite purification, some amount of bacteria stays in the water which can cause diseases.
We also need to see how food is handled. It is very important to know if the person cooking or cleaning vegetables has taken every precaution to be clean. For this it is important to train food handlers. Many training programmes have been started for the same.
Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food needs to be carefully preserved. During monsoons, one needs to take extra care to preserve fish and other sea-food. We also need to focus on vaccination. Major waterborne diseases such as Typhoid and Hepatitis can be prevented through timely vaccination.
In fact, it is time the Delhi government started a special vaccination drive during monsoons for World Health Organisation-marked diseases that account for an estimated 1.5 million deaths annually.
The writer is Additional Director Internal Medicine, Fortis Hospital, Gurgaon