deaths due to dirty water Image Credit source: AI generated image
In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, 8 people died due to drinking dirty water, while more than 100 became seriously ill and are admitted in hospitals. In the last two days, people have been reaching the hospital one by one with complaints of vomiting and diarrhea. All of them had drunk dirty water. The question is how did water become the cause of death? After all, how does contaminated water enter the body and cause illness and when does the situation become so bad that it leads to death?
WHO data shows that every year 1 million people around the world die due to diseases caused by bad water. Diseases like diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid spread through infected water. The most dangerous among these are diarrhea and hepatitis A. These are those diseases which, if not controlled on time, can lead to death within a few hours.
How diseases occur due to dirty water
Dr. Ushast Dheer, Director, Department of Liver Transplant and Hepato-Biliary Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital It is said that dirty drinking water contains very dangerous bacteria. When a person drinks such water, these bacteria enter the stomach. They first attack the intestines. This starts diarrhea. If there is excessive diarrhea then there is a deficiency of water and essential electrolytes in the body. This condition is called dehydration i.e. lack of water in the body. This water deficiency is caused by diarrhea which can even become the cause of death.
Apart from diarrhea, bad water also causes hepatitis A. This is a virus, which occurs in dirty water. When a person drinks such water, this virus enters the stomach and then gradually attacks the liver. Hepatitis A is one of the most dangerous liver diseases, which can prove fatal in some cases.
Dirty water also causes typhoid and dysentery, although these are not very serious diseases and the person recovers from them. But diarrhea and hepatitis A can be fatal.
How does diarrhea cause death?
Professor Dr. L., Director, Department of Medicine, Lady Hardinge Hospital, Delhi. H Ghotekar It is said that diarrhea is a major cause of deaths worldwide. This disease caused by dirty water causes vomiting and diarrhea. Due to diarrhea, sodium and potassium also start getting released from the body. If you do not drink ORS during this period, dehydration will occur in the body. BP starts falling due to continuous lack of water. Due to this, oxygen is not able to reach the vital organs (like kidney, brain). Due to this they stop working. If immediate treatment is not provided, the organs start dying and the patient dies.
Understand it this way, if oxygen is not supplied to the kidney, it stops working and the kidney fails. Similarly, if the brain stops working first then the brain becomes dead. All this happens so quickly that in many cases the patient dies within a few hours.
Hepatitis A attacks the liver
Talking about hepatitis 1, the risk of death from it is greater for those people who already have liver disease. It can cause liver failure in these people. Hepatitis A virus present in dirty water enters the stomach along with water. This causes swelling on the liver. After swelling, it starts attacking the liver cells. This causes liver failure, which causes death.
Hepatitis becomes very dangerous in people who already have liver diseases like stage 3 fatty liver or psoriasis. However, this does not happen in every case of hepatitis A infection. This disease can be easily prevented. It is only important that the patient knows the symptoms and gets treatment on time.
Symptoms of Hepatitis A
loss of appetite
vomiting and stomach pain
high fever
yellowing of skin
right side stomach pain
Symptoms of diarrhea
diarrhea several times a day
severe pain in stomach
Vomit
weakness
What things should be kept in mind while drinking water
Always drink boiled or filtered water
Get your water tank cleaned every 6 months
Give boiled water to children and elderly
If the color of the water is slightly changed then do not drink it.