As many as five persons have died of diarrhoea outbreak in the last three days in Rourkela. As per reports, as many as 116 persons have been admitted to Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) for treatment after being affected by the disease.
The situation has sent the Sundargarh district administration into a tizzy as it is now racing against time to ascertain the exact cause and prevent further spread of the disease.
As per the Superintendent of RGH, special wards have been set up for the treatment of patients suffering from diarrhoea. Moreover, the number of beds in the hospital has also been increased.
Patients suffering from diarrhoea started arriving at the RGH from December 10 and kept on rising over the next few days. Currently, 102 patients are undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Increase in number of diarrhoea patients in the city has raised concern. As many as five places in the city have become hotspots for the infective disease. Those places are Daily Market, Nala Road, Kishan Tola and Udit Nagar.
In a bid to provide treatment to the patients, Rourkela Municipal Corporation has formed as many as six rapid response teams. The members of the teams are visiting various places to take stock of the situation. They are also providing treatment and medicines to the affected patients.
Though food and water samples from the affected areas have been examined by Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC), no reason behind the spread of the disease has been confirmed yet.
“Most of the patients are from nine to 10 places. We have been testing water samples from the affected areas. As per the reports, Chlorine level is less in water. However, nothing has been found from those samples as the reason behind the contamination. Following the Collector’s direction, we have again collected water samples from most of the affected areas and sent those for microbiological test,” said Rourkela City Health Officer Sushil Kumar Parida.
“As many as six teams have been formed to collect water samples from 10-12 affected areas. It has not become an epidemic situation. However, we have not found any reason behind the spread of the disease yet,” said Parida.
Meanwhile, Rourkela MLA and Labour Minister Sarada Nayak exuded confidence that the spread of the disease will be contained soon.
“Now the most important thing is to provide proper treatment to the affected patients. A team of experts is working hard to find out the reason behind the spread of the disease. I am fully confident that things will be sorted out soon,” said Nayak.