Diarrhoea outbreak sends officials into tizzy
District collector B R Ambedkar enquires about the situation at a medical camp in Gurla on Wednesday
Vizianagaram: Entire districts administration rushed to Gurla mandal headquarters where more than 180 people are suffering from diarrhoea spread and claimed four lives in the past two days.
As per the information, the alarming situation has arisen due to water contamination. Collector BR Ambedkar, district medical and health officer Dr M Bhaskar Rao, district panchayat officer M Venkateswara Rao along with medical teams rushed to the village on Wednesday and conducted special medical camp providing medical assistance to the patients. Some have been admitted to Gurla health centre and district general hospital at Vizianagaram.
The district officials say the deaths were not because of diarrhoea but due co-morbidities. DMHO Bhaskara Rao said four persons died on Tuesday due to non-diarrhoea conditions such as septic shock, chronic kidney disease, cardiac arrest and asthma.
He advised the villagers to not to use common toilets as the diarrhoea is contagious disease and using common toilets may spread in the village.
The collector said that they visited the village and organised emergency medical camp, providing utmost care to the patients. Most of them have recovered and returned to homes, he said.
He interacted with the families of the patients and enquired about the conditions of their health and assured that he will support them in all possible ways to help regain their health.
Ambedkar said that 82 people were ill due to diarrhoea on Tuesday and underwent treatment, but half of them had returned homes. The collector observed that 42 more people contracted the disease and turned up for treatment on Wednesday.
“All of them are stable now. Officials found that water contamination has occurred in five private borewells, prompting the district administration to collect groundwater samples from across the village and send for analysis. As a precaution, to control the spread of disease, all the borewells and pipelines in the village have been closed and chlorinated water is being supplied to all households,” he explained.