Investigative journalism through the Herald staff has revealed quite some startling facts. There was absolutely no water available for the residents of Panjim through the PWD distribution system for over 10 days. In many cases including yours sincerely, it was for two weeks. What was worse still was the fact that the top governmental bureaucrats and other officials siphoned off almost all the tankers which consisted of 500 trips of the PWD supplied water. Over 100 frantic calls to the designated engineer by yours sincerely remained unattended, leaving me to deal with the situation on my own, through purchasing water from private parties.
Similarly the other exposure by Herald that the VIPs and ministers siphoned off almost all the funds in the health budget towards their hospitalisation expenses into private hospitals running into over Rs 10 cr is also a matter of concern since the common man has to do his treatment within the unhygienic conditions of GMC and other govt hospitals – often dying due to the poor conditions of maintenance and service. In this essay I will deal with the hospital acquired infections (HAIs) (also called as nosocomial infections), leaving the criminality of the inefficient PWD engineers for making Goans morbid for yet another essay.
In the ongoing war of humans versus microbial pathogens, virulence is gaining the upper hand. Deadly and unrelenting, microbial resistance to drugs and antibiotics is becoming more and more challenging to the medical fraternity. Hospitals are generally considered as sterile safe zones in the battle against germs, but in fact, they serve as optimal grounds for the invasive pathogens.
In an attempt to overpower microbes, man developed Gnotobiology, which is the science of study of animals or other organisms raised in environments free of germs.
Though infections are just one measure of a hospital’s safety record, they’re an important one. Every year millions of patients die of infections developed during a hospital stay. In the USA itself, 650,000 patients reportedly develop infections during hospital stays and 75,000 die, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
India being a tropical country and Goa being particularly having high ambient humidity and optimal temperatures for growth of pathogenic microbes, incidences of these HAIs as well as guest acquired infections in Luxury Hotels are 10 fold or more.
Many of these illnesses and deaths can be traced back to the microbes acquiring resistance to disinfectants, and antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents, antivirals, antifungals prescribed by doctors, self-medicated by patients, etc. Thus, those that are supposed to fight the infections become ineffective against the microbes, making infections difficult to treat.
Interestingly, penicillin also known as a wonder drug in the past, is today degraded and detoxified by Microbial enzyme Penicillinase, thus rendering penicillin unavailable to the doctors in their treatment bouquet. It is not just drug resistance alone that pose challenges to the medical fraternity, but also microbial mutation to various forms of radiation used in human and utility treatment, that has become a matter of grave concern in treating infections, and can cause human mortality
Patients being admitted to hospitals are getting hysterical because being ostensibly admitted for treatment of one disease are dying of some other disease. The popular adage in the medical fraternity reads “If you want to terminate the patient, put him/her in the ICU or CCU.” Underlying message: The Nosocomial infections are rampant in the ICU as the pathogenic microbes are ubiquitous in the complexities of the instrumentation of the ICU/CCU.
Prevention is better than cure is a well know adage. It is therefore imperative that we focus on prevention of the disease rather than resolution by medication. In Goa, there is garbage strewn everywhere with leachates entering the water bodies. Our public water supply is in doldrums. Our rivers are totally polluted, our water reservoirs and our water resource dept is in shambles. People of Goa are blissfully unaware and many of them are in deep “Rip Van Winkle” sleep. The entire State is not only a time bomb of Nosocomial diseases but also all our air, water, soil is steadily crossing the threshold of human endurance to infectivity.
How many of us Goans are aware that today after many days of no water supply to urban institutions, hospitals and public places, we are reeling under severe environment degradation with pathogenic micro-organisms?
A visit to Goa Medical College itself, the author confidently is aware that the hospital facilities have been sadly compromised owing to lack of potable water supply and consequent failure of cleaning and sanitation, leaving the patients in a pathetic state of affairs. The wash-room facilities are devoid of water supply since past several days and are in a deplorable state, sadly leaving the patients to urinate, defecate and vomit in the bed. Little wonder, that today at GMC, a patient enters for Dengue treatment and dies of waterborne disease. The medical fraternity is today left with no option but use newer, higher generation, costlier antibiotics which have more side effects.
ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers) have developed standards viz: 188 and 514, to address the various challenges posed by environmental degradation affecting the built environment and causing a threat to human safety and health.
In view of the degraded environment in Goa, it is now pertinent that we in Goa should use various recommended strategies to control contamination and assure safe public health utilities by Chlorination, UV treatment, Copper Silver Ionisation, etc.
(The writer is a retired
University Professor and an
Environmental activist)
