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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. |
