Incidents of gastroenteritis on the rise

It is a severe case of diarrhea and if you are experiencing fever or dehydration, then it is possible that you have gastroenteritis. This contagious disease can leave you fatigued and is transmitted through contaminated food, water, hands and infected surfaces. In infants, severe cases can be fatal. In the past couple months the ratio of incidents of this viral disease has increased and as a result, the Ministry of Health today sent out an advisory on the issue. News Five spoke with Epidemiologist of the Ministry, Ethan Gough, who told us the advisory is a precautionary measure.

Dr. Ethan Gough, National Epidemiologist, Ministry of Health
“The term gastroenteritis, as we used it in the health advisory, doesn’t necessarily refer to a specific disease because basically, it was referring to the fact that the number of ill persons with diarrhea, fever, vomiting and symptoms had increased based on the data we had.”

Duane Moody
“What made you conclude to that? How many people have been suffering from this so call epidemic?”

Dr. Ethan Gough
“The exact number of people I can’t really tell you off the top of my head right now, but we use a method where we compare the number of cases to the same time last year. Actually, we use the previous three or four years to see how many cases we can expect at that time of the year. The number of cases that we have seen in the previous weeks has exceeded that base line. Again, the number of cases based on our surveillance system had increased in comparison to previous years. But in this case it was in specific districts—Corozal, Stann Creek and Toledo, specifically. But again, scabies is endemic; we see cases every year. Cases reported practically every month, but the number of cases we saw this year was in excess of what you would expect based on previous years.”

Gough emphasized that the public must practice good and proper hygiene.