Diarrhoea outbreak causes panic in Chittoor village

Tirupati: The death of two women due to suspected symptoms of diarrhoea caused panic in Chittoor district on Monday. A 70-year-old woman died at Ruia hospital in Tirupati whereas another woman,40 expired at Chittoor government hospital on the same day though they have other health issues too.

Officials confirmed that the women were having symptoms of diarrhoea which might have been caused by contaminated drinking water at Kadapagunta SC colony of GD Nellore mandal. District Collector M Hari Narayanan said that 18 cases were reported from the same colony since December 7.

Out of them six people were undergoing treatment and the remaining patients have been discharged. The official machinery was on alert and conducting medical camps since December 8. The medical camps will continue for another 10 days. He appealed to people not to believe rumours and take precautionary steps. They were advised to take boiled water and proper medication. It was learnt that rectal swabs and water samples were collected from the colony and sent for testing.

Deputy CM K Narayana Swamy, in whose constituency the colony falls, along with a team of officials including Joint Collector (Development) Ch Sridhar, DM&HO Dr U Sreehari, ZP CEO Prabhakar Reddy and District Panchayat officer Dasaradharami Reddy visited the village and took stock of the situation.

The Dy CM asked the people to cooperate with the officials. Joint Collector Sridhar said the Collector talked to the officials at the testing centre to expedite the results of water samples.