Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Distt water bodies in 10 days in cholera-hit areas: CM

The Pioneer, Aug 28, 2007
Pioneer News Service | Bhubaneswar

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday directed Health Department officials to disinfect all water bodies within 10 days in the cholera-affected areas of Kashipur and Dasmantpur blocks. Patnaik, along with the Health Minister Duryodhan Majhi, extensively toured the affected areas.

Patnaik directed the officials to supply medicines free of cost to the patients and foods to their attendants. It has been decided that labour-intensive work would also be started in these areas.

Though the State Government has not yet declared that cholera has taken the shape of an epidemic, the killer diseases have already claimed about 100 lives in the tribals-dominated areas of Koraput, Kalahandi and Rayagada districts. Kashipur and Dasmantpur are the worst-hit areas.

The expert teams of Regional Medical Centre (RMC) and the MKCG Medical College, which have extensively toured to collect the sample of the dysentery cases, admitted that they have already found the bacteria of cholera. They also pointed out that 70 per cent of the water bodies have been contaminated.

Meanwhile, the State Government has deputed 16 mobile health units to Dasmantpur and 14 to Kashipur. A Central team, led by Siblal of National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD), also reached the affected areas to study the outbreak of cholera.

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