Jaundice scare in Odisha’s Jeypore as situation improves in Khordha
Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 3:
There has been an improvement in the situation arising out of jaundice in Odisha’s Khordha district, informed district collector Niranjan Sahu.
“The number of afflicted persons in the district has come down from the earlier 35 to 20,” said Sahu after holding a review meeting at the Circuit House here on Friday.
“From a stock taking done today, we found that most of the 35-40 people who were afflicted with the disease in our district are now recovering. We found that the recently reported death in Begunia was not due to jaundice. It’s not true. We are taking precautionary measures to contain the spread as well eradication of the disease,” Sahu told reporters.
Steps taken for containing the spread of the disease and steps to be taken for its eradication figured at the review meeting.
Drinking boiled water, washing hands before eating and setting up of a control room in the office of the Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO), Khordha to monitor the situation and reports on a daily basis to the collector’s office were discussed.
However, the death of a four year old girl child due to jaundice has been reported on Friday from Gobardhanpur colony in Kantalbai panchayat area under Tangi block in the district.
Sasmita (4), daughter of Pravati Mondal of Gobardhanpur colony, was afflicted with jaundice since last few days. Pravati had got her daughter treated by quacks in the village since she could not afford the high cost treatment in hospital.
As Sasmita’s condition worsened, Pravati took her daughter to her parents’ place in Sundarpur colony. The child was taken to the government hospital at Tangi on Friday afternoon as her condition deteriorated further. However, she died on the way to the hospital.
As news of her death spread, Tangi tehsildar Susmita Behera directed additional tehsildar Jugal Kishore Mishra to visit the spot. Mishra has conducted an inquiry into the incident, reports said.
Gobardhapur colony comes under Kantalbai panchayat, the one visited by the collector and CDMO a few days back. Several cases of jaundice were reported from the area.
OST correspondent from Jeypore in Koraput district adds that residents of south Odisha’s second biggest town Jeypore are in a state of panic fearing an outbreak of jaundice because of supply of contaminated drinking water through the town’s leaking and worn out pipelines of water supply system.
Out of ten water samples collected from different points in the town, three were suspected to be containing jaundice virus on the basis of preliminary reports and have been sent for further tests to the special laboratory at Koraput for confirmation.
The three samples suspected to be containing jaundice virus were collected from Parabeda, New street 5th Line, Paraja Sahi of Jaynagar and Kandiriguda area.
“Things will be clear after the test reports are available in three to four days. The test will confirm whether the drinking water samples contain jaundice virus or not”, informed ADMO Dr Arun Kumar Padhi.
A letter has been sent to the assistant director Health in this regard.
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