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Data on the
incidence of diarrhoeas needs to be taken from the same sources every week;
those sources need to be reputable; and total numbers of outpatients and
total community size served needs to be known. The �base load� is the
average number of patients anticipated with watery (or bloody) diarrhoea in
any week. Only when there is a substantial (or statistically significant)
change is it necessary to investigate the source of the change. For
suspected infectious hepatitis cases, these need to be confirmed as being
�new� cases (as opposed to old/chronic) cases. In Bagh, in one week the
total number of suspected infectious hepatitis cases rose from 2 to 10. WHO
was immediately informed and within hours it was ascertained that these were
(old) chronic cases so were not caused by a single water source. Scabies
has been seen as a problem in areas where soap is not easily available (or
used), and where the medication of choice is in critically short supply. |
