Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Abdullah, a Peshawar-based shopkeeper, is a pensive mood while standing in a children hospital along with his wife who carries a minor child as well. The face of the child, suffering from diarrhoea and dehydration, has turned pale while his parents are anxiously waiting for a nurse to administer drugs to the baby. “The child was okay yesterday and began vomiting and loose motions late in the night,” Abdullah told this scribe, while carrying a bottle of drugs and medicine. Another woman was seen attending her minor child, suffering from the same ailment, lying on a bed in the hospital. “Each time a tooth develops in the mouth of my child, he begins loose motions and vomiting,” the woman explains the health problems of her child. However, Dr Sultan Aziz, who specialises in children treatment and has a clinic in the city, said it is wrong to say that teeth development leads to such a condition of a child. “At a time of teeth development, the gums of a child start itching and as a result the minor puts something dirty and impure from the ground into mouth, that is why loose motions and vomiting begins,” he maintained. Medical experts say that many children develop frequent watery diarrhoea and vomiting due to rotavirus infection. However, authorities have not yet started vaccination for rotavirus, which should be part of general immunisation of children in early years of their lives. Dr Shaheen Afridi, Deputy Director Public Health Department, said that most of the diarrhoea cases were because of rotavirus infections. However, she added that they have not yet started vaccination for the disease. “It is our plan to include vaccination of rotavirus in routine immunisation of children and we are working on it,” she said.