Press Trust of India, Aug 31,2009
Bhubaneswar, Aug 30 (PTI) A senior Congress leader today asked the Orissa government to check the spread of diarrhoea which allegedly claimed 38 lives in Kalahandi.
Bhakta Charan Das, Congress MP from Kalahandi, also demanded that the posts of 76 doctors lying vacant in the backward district be filled immediately.
"Due to utter negligence of the BJD government, at least 38 persons have died of diarrhoea which has affected over 10,000 people in over 13 villages of the district in last 25 days," the state Congress Working President alleged.
Attacking the Naveen Patnaik government for not recruiting doctors, he said diarrhoea had assumed epidemic proportion as healthcare system collapsed in Kalahandi.
The state government, he claimed, had failed to provide a single doctor for every 12,000 people in Kalahandi.
Das said a central team was scheduled to visit the district to assess the situation.
Diarrhoea deaths rock Kalahandi
Times of India, Aug 30, 2009
BHUBANESWAR: At least two dozen people have succumbed to diarrhoea this month in Kalahandi, catapulting the district, infamous for poverty and starvation deaths, into a focus yet again for the wrong reasons.
To assess the situation, a Central team, including functionaries from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi, are slated to tour the region starting Monday.
Panic struck Kalahandi, particularly in Bhawanipatna and Lanjigarh blocks, after diarrhoea broke out in the district. The first death due to the water-borne disease, according to district officials, was reported on July 31.
This was followed by a stream of casualties, with Ghatikunduru village (in Lanjigarh block) alone accounting for six deaths. Another badly hit village is Tarngel (in Lanjigarh block), where at least three lives have been lost. The official death toll so far stands at 24, including two children.
"No deaths have been recorded since August 21, even though we continue to get lot of cases especially in Lanjigarh block. But the overall situation is improving and the administration is making all out efforts to control the disease," Kalahandi collector R S Gopalan told TOI on Sunday. He said 20 medical teams are working there, an intensive awareness campaign is being undertaken and disinfection of tubewells and other water sources done on a war-footing.
Officials said they were finding it difficult to prevent spread of the disease because they villagers depend on nullahs for their water besides the villages were far flung.
Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das, in turn, claimed that 38 persons have already died and demanded the state government to fill up 76 doctors' posts lying vacant in the district. He blamed the ruling party's negligence for the outbreak and estimated that around 10,000 people have been affected.
Das, who is the working president of state Congress, said diarrhoea has assumed endemic proportions as the healthcare system in Kalahandi had collapsed. "I have discussed the issue with Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and he has agreed to extend all possible help," he added.
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