Kim James 
As the 5th phase of the Lok Sabha elections got underway in West Bengal on Monday, the ruling Trinamool Congress presented free ‘tender drinks’ to the citizens in a place beneath the Sreerampur Lok Sabha constituency. The birthday celebration had attempted similar methods inside the preceding levels too. Trinamool employees have been visible distributing cold liquids to the humans enroute to the polling stations. Local birthday celebration leaders mentioned the insufferable warmness as the purpose in the back of the kind act, whilst the opposition events alleged that Trinamool employees were seeking to trap the electorate.
Earlier, in north Bengal’s Raiganj parliamentary constituency, which voted inside the 2d section on April 18, a few electorates in the Islampur Assembly phase had been given Rs 30 every afternoon before the elections. Trinamool people went door-to-door to provide the cash in Malitola village. “We had been given Rs 30 to drink tea and purchase snacks for our kids. They also informed us to vote for Trinamool,” a female had stated. However, a local Trinamool chief had claimed that he gave the cash from his very own pocket and no longer on behalf of the celebration.
In Balurghat, which went to the polls within the 1/3 segment on April 23, the Trinamool had allegedly asked a ‘jhala muri'(puffed rice) seller to sit close to a sales space Rabindra Nagar and provide the snack to the electorate totally free. BJP’s Balurghat candidate Sukanta Majumdar needed to ask the older man sitting with puffed rice to transport to a distance so that nobody becomes prompted. As a Speech Pathologist, I turned into regularly asked questions like this with the aid of the circle of relatives members of those who were newly diagnosed with swallowing difficulty. Most people have never heard of swallowing problems, let alone ‘Thickened Drinks.’‘
Swallowing difficulties (also referred to as ‘Dysphagia’) aren’t unusual, but they can affect human beings of all ages. There are many known reasons for dysphagia, but a number of the extra common ones are stroke; cerebral palsy; Parkinson’s disorder; head trauma; surgery and radiation therapy due to most cancers of the head or neck; and modifications to the nerves and muscular tissues of the throat that making swallowing hard for the elderly.
What Are Thickened Fluids and Why Are They Recommended?
If a person you know has been identified with a swallowing difficulty, probabilities are they had been endorsed ‘thickened liquids’ or ‘thickened fluids.’ Thickened drinks are essentially normal liquids with a specially formulated thickener brought to them thicker than everyday beverages (this is discussed more later within the article). They are advocated with the aid of Speech Pathologists (additionally known as Speech therapists or Speech and Language therapists) for individuals who can now not swallow normal fluids thoroughly and who’re liable to having drinks move into their lungs.
The consequences of drinks going into the lungs can be robust coughing, choking or extra extreme dangers, chest contamination, and aspiration pneumonia. I later worked with one lady who, most effective four months before, had been in a health facility with her third bout of aspiration pneumonia in less than 10 months. She was encouraged thickened liquids over three hundred and sixty-five days in the past, but she turned into nevertheless ingesting normal liquids at least once a day, and small amounts of the drinks had been going into her lungs.
This changed into trouble, no longer simplest because of the fluid within the lungs, however, because obviously occurring bacteria in her mouth traveled with the fluid and into her lungs. Once this occurs, it is most effective a count number of times earlier than the bacteria reasons a chest infection called aspiration pneumonia. Fortunately for this female, she sooner or later listened to advice and,d handiest drank the thickened beverages advocated by her. She has not had a recurrence of aspiration pneumonia because!
