Rising heat unleashes gastritis storm in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: The high temperatures hovering around 40 degree Celsius in the last few weeks have led to a rise in food-borne illnesses in the city and tertiary as well as primary healthcare centres are reporting cases of gastritis in larger numbers.
At Hafeezpet PHC, the number of food illnesses has doubled in the last two months, with an average of 5-6 patients reporting sick per day.

Similarly, at Serilingampally PHC and Banjara hills PHC too, the numbers have jumped by 10-15 per cent. "Along with cases of heat illnesses and dehydration, we are increasingly seeing cases of gastritis among school-going children and young adults. Most of them have reported having consumed food on the roadside or had spolit food. Patients reported stomach upset, bloating, vomiting and stomach ache," said a doctor of Osmania General Hospital. OGH has being seeing an upswing of gastritis cases in the last three weeks. Sources said 10-12 gastritis cases are reported at OGH every day.
Experts say that consuming food on the roadside, beverages as well as food getting spoiled due to high temperature is the reason for this rise. "There is an 8-10% rise in number of patients who have visited in the past 15 days for food-borne disease related issues. The reason for this rise in cases is due to summer heat," Dr P Sangeetha, consultant, internal medicine, said.
People are moving around for vacations and contracting food-borne diseases, she said. "The only way to prevent this is to get children vaccinated, wash hands before eating, wash fruits and vegetables before eating, avoid undercooked meat and fish and avoid ice cubes as they may be made from contaminated water," Dr Sangeetha said.
Food-borne infections, which are primarily related to environment, generally seem to increase during high temperature periods. "At high temperatures, food can get spoilt within hours. Also, high temperatures are idle for growth of bacteria which can cause mild to severe illnesses. As per the World Health Organisation (WHO) research, a single food-borne bacteria can multiply to 20 lakh bacteria within seven hours in high temperature conditions," said Dr Kiran Madala, ICMR-certified researcher.