ICEH Papers

GEO-MEDICAL ASPECTS OF ACUTE DIARRHOEAL DISEASES IN MEGHALAYA


Mukherjee, Sumit “Geo-Medical Aspects Of Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases In Meghalaya” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh and T. Vasantha Kumaran, eds., Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Environment and Health, Chennai, India, 15-17 December, 2003. Chennai: Department of Geography, University of Madras and Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. Pages 276 – 283.

Abstract:

Environment and diarrhea is a complex and multidimensional topic. An unhealthy environment is the main reason for its causation in the community, however not much effort is made to understand and improve the condition. The incidence of this disease is primarily related to the hot season, poor environmental sanitation and low quality potable water. Hence diarrhea, among other common communicable diseases, is seen as the index of public health condition. The Meghalaya, a North Eastern Indian state, is a plateau landmass with a unique bio-cultural diversity in the world’s wettest climate. The huge majority of the population is mostly scheduled tribes living in rural areas (81.4%) and of which only half is covered under the institutional health care delivery. As expected it offers a wide range of disease environments, dominated by communicable diseases (35.68%). Recent observations (1994, 1996) revealed that Acute Diarrhoeal Disease ranked highest in most of the districts with the highest prevalence rate of 225 cases per thousand in the Ri Bhoi against the state average of 104 cases. In general higher temperature, lower altitude and high density of population induced higher prevalence. Late summer and early rainy season are the peak periods of incidence throughout the state. The present paper attempts an insight into the pattern of prevalence of the Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases over the geo-cultural extent of the state to understand the latent environmental factors involved.

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