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Diarrhea
and Hajj Rituals |
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By Dr. Musa Al-Khateeb
Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University |
 When
the stool of someone becomes soft or rather watery and he excretes
many times more than usual, he is necessarily infected with
diarrhea, and if his stool contains mucus or blood, then he is
infected with dysentery. Infection with diarrhea may be light or
rather serious; it can be acute that happens all of a sudden or
chronic which happens gradually and this last one lasts many days.
Acute diarrhea which happens all of a sudden to
a person who has not suffered from any health problems often
happens due to microbial, viral or parasite infection. Hence
medical treatment should be sought.
The Main Causes of Diarrhea:
1- Mal-nutrition:
Mal-nutrition, especially in aged people,
increases the chance for infection with dangerous type of diarrhea.
To overcome diarrhea, which happens due to mal-nutrition, one must
eat hygienic food and care for personal and public cleanness. This
can be achieved through using clean or rather sanitary baths,
drinking pure water and preserving food from pollution and keeping
it away from flies.
2- Viral Infection:
a- Enteric Influenza.
b- Hepatitis.
3- Gastro Enteritis as a result of:
A- Bacterial Infection:
- Intestinal fever, e.g. typhoid and
bara-typhoid.
- Cholera, which starts as watery diarrhea like
the water of rice, followed by vomiting.
B- Ameba
C- Giardia Lamblia
4- Infection With Intestinal Worms.
5- Inflammations (Otitis, Measles, Ureteritis,
Sore Throat…etc.)
6- Malarea (Felsibarm Type).
7- Food Poisoning due to contaminated food:
It starts in the form of vomiting followed by
diarrhea, internal contraction and acute colic due to infection
with Salmonella virus or staphylococcus.
8- Allergy From Food:
Allergy which happens due to eating certain
kinds of foods, such as fish and seafood, milk …etc.
9- Medicine Side-Effects:
These are the side effects that happen due to
some medication, such as embicilline and tetracycline.
10- Intaking Laxatives, Poisonous Plants and
Substances.
11- Eating Unripe Fruits and Fatty Foods.
Diarrhea Treatment:
How can you protect yourself against
diarrhea?
In most cases of diarrhea, there is no need for
medical treatment, because the danger of acute diarrhea lies in
dehydration, whereas that of chronic diarrhea lies in
mal-nutrition. So the best therapy is to take enough amounts of
liquids and hygienic food.
In all cases of Diarrhea, two things must be
taken into account:
1- Protection against dehydration:
A person who has diarrhea must drink a big
amount of liquids. If the case is severe and symptoms of
dehydration start to appear, he has to have drinks which prevents
dehydration even if he is unwilling to drink them. In this case,
the patient is to take some of the drink each ten minutes maximum.
How to prepare a drink which prevents
dehydration as a first aid in Hajj:
Add two sauce-spoons of sugar or honey or
glucose powder with a quarter tea-spoon of salt and another quarter
of sodium bicarbonate if available, and if not put salt instead to
one liter of water. Then add a half a glass of orange or lemon
juice to the water. You may have it prepared from the pharmacy and
just dissolve it in sterilized water.
Give the patient some of such a solution every
five minutes day and night, till he can urinate in a normal way.
Patient children are to be given one liter minimum of such
dissolution per day, while adults need three liters minimum per
day. Go on giving the patient such drink even if he is vomiting.
2- Eating well:
A person suffering from diarrhea must eat well
as long as he has the ability to eat. This is actually an urgent
measure, especially for those who suffer from mal-nutrition.
Eating well may increase the times of excretion
for the patient. But there is no problem in that so long as it
saves from fatal dangers.
People who suffer from severe diarrhea get cured
sooner if they take only drinks that prevent dehydration. But if
the diarrhea remained for more than one day, they have to eat well.
Food Suitable For Diarrhea Patients:
 If
the person who suffer from diarrhea vomits or has no desire to eat,
he has to drink tea, water of the rice, chicken or meat sauce, some
juice and solution which prevents dehydration.
Then when the patient gains appetite to food, he
has to eat some balanced meals besides such drinks. Balanced meals
should contain the following elements:
A- Foods which provides man with power, such as
ripe or cocked banana, rice, fresh corn (cocked or ground), flour,
cocked seeds, sweet potato and cocked apple juice.
B- Foods that are necessary for building the
body, such as milk, (however it may cause some problems), fried or
grill chicken, boiled egg, well cocked meat, cocked peas or beans
and fish.
However, diarrhea patients should not eat foods
cocked with fats or oil, nor should they eat unripe fruits, nor any
kind of laxative drinks.
Necessary Care for Different Cases of
Diarrhea:
The best treatment in most cases of diarrhea is
to give the patient a lot of drinks and hygienic foods. But in some
cases, the patients need special care, that is, when diarrhea is
accompanied by different forms of inflammation, such as otitis,
sore throat or ureteritis, or measles. In such cases the patient
must consult the doctor. Some cases of severe diarrhea require some
analyses, such as stool analysis, which helps diagnose the disease
and prescribe the specific treatment for it.
Here, we present some instructions to be
followed in cases of diarrhea, according to the symptoms of each
case:
1- In cases of slight diarrhea that happens all
of a sudden due to some disorders in the stomach or to an
intestinal virus and is not accompanied by high temperature, take a
lot of drinks. There is no need to taking medication, unless you
have some internal contraction or colic. Hence, take some cure for
colic with some rest.
2- There are many causes for cases of diarrhea,
which is accompanied by vomiting. However, diarrhea accompanied by
vomiting increases the danger of dehydration. So it is so important
to give the patient solution against dehydration along with other
drinks, such as tea, juice or any other liquids that are palatable.
If the patient cannot help vomiting or symptoms
of dehydration started to appear on him, then he should immediately
seek medical care.
3- As for cases of chronic diarrhea that are
accompanied by mucus and blood in the stool without high
temperature, i.e. amebic dysentery, the patient must consult the
doctor to prescribe the effective medicine for him.
4- In cases of severe diarrhea which is
accompanied by high temperature, whether there is blood in the
stool or not, such as bacillary dysentery, typhoid, malaria, viral
infection, the patient must seek the help of the doctor. Yet first
aid as for preventing dehydration must be immediately applied once
the symptoms start to appear on the patient.
5- Yellow diarrhea with bad smell and bubbles
and neither blood nor mucus, i.e. Giardia Lamblia. This cases may
inflict one due to infection with some microscopic parasites. In
this case drinking a lot of liquids and eating hygienic food,
taking some rest are very useful measures in the treatment of
diarrhea.
6- In cases of chronic diarrhea the patient gets
recurrently inflicted with diarrhea which lasts many days. The most
prominent cause for this form of diarrhea is mal-nutrition and
chronic inflammation due to infection with ameba. Hence the patient
is to be well nourished with foods rich in protein. If the patient
is not cured after these measures are taken, then he has to seek
medical aid.
7- Watery diarrhea which resembles the water of
rice is a sign that there is an infection with cholera. Cholera is
an epidemic disease, that is, it inflicts a group of people at the
same time and soon spreads among the others. So when there is any
doubt of infection with cholera, the concerned authority must be
informed and medical care applied.
Cases Of Diarrhea Where Medical Treatment
Is A Must:
Some cases of diarrhea may be fatal, especially
for children and aged people. The following are some cases where
medical treatment must be applied:
1- If diarrhea remained for four days, or more
than one day for children infected with severe diarrhea, without
any improvement.
2- If the patient contract dehydration and his
general condition grows worse.
3- In case a child vomits all what he drinks or
if he is not able to drink.
4- If a child is shivering or has facial
buffness or edema of lower limbs.
5- If the patient is originally so weak or
suffering from another disease or has mal-nutrition before he has
diarrhea, especially children and aged people.
6- In case there is a great amount of blood in
the stool of the patient. This may be a dangerous symptom even if
diarrhea is not severe.
7- In case diarrhea is watery and is like the
water of rice, because it may be a symptom of infection with
cholera. In this case not only medical care is sought, but
concerned authority must be informed.
8- In cases of food poisoning, due to eating
spoiled food. Hot weather in Saudi Arabia causes food to spoil, and
this causes a lot of food poisoning accidents at Hajj. Among the
foods that spoil causing poisoning are meat, fish, milk, ice cream,
carbohydrates and expired canned food. The first aid in cases of
food poisoning is gastric wash to remove the poisonous substance
from the stomach before it passes to the intestines, then medical
treatment is to be applied.
Moreover, the patient may need to stay in the
hospital for some time to be given some substituting solutions and
medicines that cure hypo-tension which happens in such urgent
cases.
So, dear brothers who are going to perform Hajj,
be careful and take all these instructions into consideration
throughout your journey.
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