JEYPORE: The health administration of Koraput is alert after a 10-year-old boy from Kumbhariput village succumbed to diphtheria while undergoing treatment at MKCG medical college and hospital.
Sources said after Dipuna Melaka succumbed to the disease, staff of Health department are camping in the village.
The staff have started vaccinating those who had come in contact with Dipuna. Health staff suspect Dipuna contracted the disease after coming in contact with some boys from Rayagada who were camping in the village along with their families. Sources said the staff vaccinated at least 37 villagers on Friday.
The medical teams are also conducting door-to-door surveillance and collected swabs of 13 relatives of Dipuna.
Official sources said the two medical teams of Bandhugaon and Koraput are camping in the village and will stay there for a few more days.
Koraput additional district medical officer NM Satapthy, said medical staff are working on war footing in the affected areas and each suspicious case is being investigated thoroughly. “However, no fresh case has been reported from the village yet,” he said.