They die young due to drug abuse

PERUMBAVOOR: An alaming increase in the number of deaths due to cardiac arrests has become a phenomenon among young migrant workers in Perumbavoor with officials attributing the cause to various reasons.In more than 25 postmortems conducted on the bodies of migrant labourers below 28 years of age in 2011 at the Perumbavoor Taluk Hospital, cardiac arrest was the cause of death. “Curiously, in most of the cases the individuals were otherwise healthy. We suspect drug abuse and alcoholism to be the reasons,” said a top health official with the hospital. Another reason is that the migrants do not seek proper and timely treatment for their health issues. “When an illness is diagnosed, the migrant labourers usually leave for their native place as they prefer their alternative folk medicines to allopathy,” said Dr Rameshan K R of Government Hospital in Vengola.Perumbavoor CI V Roy told ‘City Express’ that the use of drugs was common among the migrant population. “The labourers who visit their native places during holidays bring drugs. Since the quantity is not large, it is difficult for us to track the flow of drugs among them. The large number of migrants living here makes it almost impossible to check each and every individual,” he said. However, Roy rules out the presence of a major drug racket in the area. The migrants bring and use it for themselves, he said.“In the past couple of years, there has been an increase in the number of deaths due to cardiac arrest among migrant labourers below the age of 35. One day they are missing and the next day, they are found dead. Postmortems reveal that sickness and drug abuse are the most common causes,” police said.