BHUBANESWAR: Six fresh cases of jaundice were reported from Jharana slum here on Monday taking the total number of persons affected by the water-borne disease in the locality near Sishu Bhavan square to 56.
All of them have been shifted to Capital Hospital and are under observation.
Eight persons, who tested positive for jaundice on Sunday, have been admitted in the Capital Hospital and are recovering, Mayor AN Jena said here.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has expedited measures to sanitise slums and disinfect water bodies used by inhabitants. A medical team of the Public Health Department is attending to the patients whose liver tests were done periodically.
Jena along with members of City Health Society visited the worst-hit Jharana slum and interacted with the residents. Later, they went to Capital Hospital and distributed necessary items to jaundice patients. “All medical tests, medicine costs and other related expenditure for treatment of patients are being done for free,” Jena said.
With use of contaminated well water and superstitions leading to the spread of jaundice, the Corporation is creating mass awareness among slum dwellers to use PHEO supply water.
“Our priority is recovery of patients and to ensure that the disease does not reappear. We will later take a decision on the wells which need to be sealed,” the Mayor said.
Though there was a report of one person being infected by the water-borne disease in Kargil slum, it was later found that the man is a labourer from Bihar and had contracted jaundice in his native place 10 days back.
Meanwhile, screening camps, each having a child specialist and medicine specialist, are conducting tests on suspected cases periodically.