PARADIP: Diarrhoea has claimed two lives in the last one week in Paradeepgarh village in Kujang block. At least five residents of the village have been affected with the disease.
Irked over the administration’s apathy, the villagers recently staged a road blockade following which a team comprising eight doctors rushed to the spot. Sources said Bipin Rout (45) was affected and admitted to Paradip community health centre. He was later shifted to SCB medical college and hospital, Cuttack for treatment, where he succumbed on Sunday. Earlier, Bipin’s father, Dijwabar Rout (63) complained of loose motion and vomiting and was also shifted to SCB medical college and hospital in Cuttack, where he died last week.
Besides two children from the village are suffering from the disease. Despite the deaths and illnesses, no medical team had reached the village until recently. The locals alleged use of contaminated water is the main cause of the diarrhoea outbreak in the village.
They said the village has no drainage system due to which rainwater gets stagnated. The contaminated water seeps into tubewells whose water is used by the villagers. The villagers accused the local sarpanch and administration of not taking any steps to construct a drainage system in the area.
After the villagers’ protest, a team comprising eight doctors, a microbiologist and an epidemiologist rushed to the spot, examined the patients and gave them medicines and ORS powder.
Superintendent of Kujang community health centre, Prasanna Kumar Panda said the cause of death of the father-son duo has not yet been ascertained. Postmortem of the victims has been conducted and reports are awaited. He said the medical team has collected samples from tubewells along with stool samples of patients for examination to determine the cause of the infection and water contamination. The block administration has been asked to take steps to release stagnant water from the village to prevent further contamination
Sarpanch of Paradeepgarh gram panchayat, Sasmita Behera, said preventive measures have been taken to control diarrhoea outbreak in the village. An allocation of `4 lakh has been made for construction of a drainage system and elevation of the roads to prevent waterlogging. Steps have been taken to supply fresh water to the villagers through tankers, she added.