Sunday, August 26, 2007

80 die of cholera in Orissa

The Hindu, Aug 26, 2007

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 26 (PTI): Eighty people have died of cholera and several thousands affected by the disease in three tribal-dominated districts of Rayagada, Koraput and Kalahandi in southern Orissa.

The Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) of Rayagada district, R Sitaram, Saturday confirmed 50 deaths. Koraput CDMO, N K Choudhury, said 24 people had died of the epidemic in the district, while Kalahandi's Additional District Medical Officer, Sushil Rath, put the toll in the district at six.

A total of 70 villages spread over the three districts had come under the grip of the killer disease during the past 40 days and several thousand people had been affected by it, sources said.

Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, yesterday asked Agriculture Minister, Surendranath Naik, to visit Rayagada district.

The Chief Minister, who spoke to reporters here, said the government was taking all possible steps to combat the situation.

However, Health Secretary, Chinmay Basu, who is camping in the area since Friday, told PTI over phone that all deaths were not due to the outbreak of cholera.

"Some of these cases which have claimed lives had been due to cholera," he said.

Basu said the administration was facing constraints as the affected tribals were not willing to get treated in hospitals. "Now they were being forcibly lifted to hospitals in vehicles for treatment with the help of local panchayat functionaries," he said.

The Health Secretary said so far 3,500 affected people had been treated in hospitals.

"The treatment is simple, as saline drips are being administered along with antibiotics, but the people perhaps are not convinced," he said adding, they were resorting to "black magic" or depending on quacks.

All the private hospitals in the area had been asked to treat cholera and diarrhoea patients on priority, while retired doctors had been summoned to assist at public health centres, the Secretary said.

The sources said while cholera had been identified in 14 villages under Dasmanthpur block in Koraput district, 40 villages under Kashipur and Chandrapur blocks in Rayagada district had been affected along with 16 villages under Thuamul Rampur block in Kalahandi district.

The entire area comprising the villages was contiguous with natural-barriers like hills and water bodies.

At least 12 teams of doctors and 18 mobile medical teams were pressed into service to contain spread of the disease in Rayagada district.

A team of doctors from the VSS Medical College Hospital at Burla visited the 19 villages surrounded by Indravati reservoir in Kalahandi district.

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