More rains, more water-borne diseases: Cholera kills 8 in state

Nagpur: For the first time in the last three years, water-borne disease cholera killed 8 patients across the state in the first eight months of 2022. This was revealed in information released under the Right to Information (RTI) to Abhay Kolarkar. Even the swine flu wave of 2022 has been worse than the one in 2019.
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholera. There were 71 reported cholera cases in the year 2020, and 281 in 2021, but no death due to it was reported in Maharashtra in both years. In 2022, there were 193 cases of cholera, and eight of them died. The rainy season picked up after August and it’s still raining on and off due to delayed monsoon withdrawal. This hints at more cholera cases and more deaths in the last two months of the year.
“Cholera can be successfully treated with oral rehydration solution. There were no deaths due to it in the last two years, but we lost eight lives this year, which means there must be something wrong with the system,” said Dr Sanjay Khartade, a paediatrician.
The swine flu wave was once again witnessed in 2022 after the one in 2019, when H1N1 had claimed 246 lives. By July-end of this year, the state had reported 512 cases of swine flu and 16 deaths. However, by October, Nagpur district alone has reported 60+ swine flu deaths which means the death toll of 2022 could surpass the 2019 death toll of 246.
Covid-19 still remains the biggest killer when it comes to infectious diseases. Covid has claimed 6,578 lives this year in Maharashtra till July. But, there is a major respite too. The Covid death toll of the past two years was 92,005 (2021) and 89,521 (2021). This means, there is more than 93% decrease in the death toll of Covid-19.
There is some more good news. The comparison of pandemic years with the year 2022 shows that the prevalence of diseases like scrub typhus, lepto, and jaundice has gone down, probably due to the hygiene people are maintaining after Covid-19. There is a significant decline in typhoid patients from 72,800 (2019) to 14,400 (July 2022). Even water-borne diarrhoea has gone down from 7.38 lakh in 2019 to 1.9 lakh in 2022.
BOX
Infectious diseases in last 4 years
No deaths due to cholera in 2020 and 2021, but 8 killed in 2022
Cases went down to 71 in 2020, may be due to strict lockdown
Many other infectious diseases also down, Covid deaths also down in 2022