Food in wedding parties on cold winter evenings is landing an increasing number of attendees in city hospitals.
Three members of a Ghatkopar family fell severely ill after attending a wedding on December 26.
While 55-year-old Sunil Bhatia has been admitted to a local nursing home after repeated bouts of vomiting and loose motions, his wife Neena, 53, and father Gordhandas, 84, showed similar symptoms.
“We had attended two wedding parties on the same day in Ghatkopar and Chembur, where we had consumed pani puri and other snacks. Later in the evening, we felt queasy in the stomach and were severely drained out,” Sunil told dna.
This month has a 30% rise in cases of food poisoning, due to a several weddings, as compared to the rest of the year, say doctors.
“For the past two weeks, diarrhoea cases have increased. Sunil came to the hospital with severe dehydration on Friday. He has been administered up to 15 bottles of saline in the past two days,” said Dr Chetan Velani, general physician at Kamdar Nursing Home on Tilak Road, Ghatkopar (East).
“The cases have been attributed to Escherichia Coli bacterial contamination. Microbial matter found in faecal matter finds its way to water, contaminating it. Uncooked salads and chutneys prepared by caterers in unhygienic conditions and sweets prepared from unpasteurised milk becoming home to bacterial fermentation if not stored properly are some of the reasons. They are the main causes of food poisoning,” said Dr Hakim Pardawalla, general physician at Saifee Hospital.
“People should avoid gorging on raw salads, chat, pani puri and chutneys. Water should be had only after boiling. Salads are prepared in the morning and tend to go bad by evening. The elderly with a history of diabetes and borderline kidney functions are particularly vulnerable,” Pardawalla said.
In numbers
Count of water-borne diseases in city in December 2013
659 cases of gastroenteritis
77 cases of jaundice
50 cases of typhoid
1 case of cholera
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