lucknow a large number of tourists from the developed world visiting india suffer from acute diarrhoea during their stay in the country whats worse is that many of them go back with lifelong damage to their digestive tract including the stomach shows a study conducted jointly by the gastroenterology department of sanjay gandhi post graduate institute of medical sciences sgpgims dhaka medical college and international centre for diarrhoeal disease research bangladesh under the guidance of prof uday c ghoshalwhile most people dismiss the problem as a routine digestive tract infection the impact can persist for life said prof ghoshal from sgpgims he has authored the paper with dr m masudar rahman of bangladeshunder review for publication in the american journal of gastroenterology a highimpact medical journal by the nature publishing group the paper showed how acute diarrhoea will make people suffer through life the researchers evaluated 345 people including tourists who visited india who got diarrhoea we found that around 17 subjects suffered from postinfection dyspepsiaa condition marked by loss of appetite nausea and feeling of fullness and pain in upper abdomen likewise around 7 of the subjects suffered from postinfection irritable bowel syndrome which caused cramps in the lower part of the abdomen and altered bowel habits said prof ghoshalhe added that these people suffer because postinfection dyspepsia is a relatively new disease as a result a number of general physicians are not aware of the problem and end up trying different antibiotics on patients which adds to their problemacute diarrhoea is a common problem experienced by travellers to asia particularly to india from developed countries even as swachh bharat is a national flagship programme experts blamed poor hygiene for the trendfailure to adhere to handwashing use of unsafe drinking water and sale of unsafe street food are some of the reasons that cause trouble a lack of immunity in those coming from developed countries to india is also a cause he saidthe issue experts believe deters a number of tourists from visiting the country which is not a good sign for a growing tourism economy like indiawe pledge atithi devo bhava but fail to provide them a comfortable stay on account of poor hygiene policymakers must see how bad tummy is an obstacle to indias tourism sector which is growing at an annual rate of 9 said prof ghoshalhowever experts maintain that civic sense is also needed in addition to the governments efforts to mitigate the problem governments can make policies or build toilets but it is up to the people to follow them in their best interestin 2017 more than 88 million foreign tourists visited india according to the union ministry of culture and tourism report for 201718 around 18 of these were from the united states and canada while around 16 came from france germany and united kingdom