SAMBALPUR: As diarrhoea cases spiral out of control in Sambalpur’s Hirakud town, the administration on Thursday clarified that none of the three deaths reported so far was due to the water-borne disease.
In a release, the district administration said after proper medical examination, it was found that the deaths were not caused by diarrhoea. The primary cause of death of the first deceased, identified as Tikeswar Nayak (43), was determined to be coronary artery disease. Nayak had died on March 23.
The second deceased, Judisthir Dharua (42), died due to heart attack. He was neither admitted to Hirakud urban community health centre (UCHC) nor VIMSAR, Burla after being diagnosed with gastroenteritis. Similarly, Jamuna Behera (62), whose death was reported on Thursday, died due to acute kidney injury.
The release further said a number of measures have been taken by the district administration to prevent the diarrhoea spread including deployment of rapid response team at Hirakud, maintenance of leakages in pipelines, setting-up of mobile toilet at Hirakud CHC, super chlorination of water, daily testing of water quality by PHED and Public Health team.
Chief district medical officer (CDMO) of Sambalpur Sujata Rani Mishra said, “The number of diarrhoea cases reported so far is 265. This includes three new cases reported on Thursday. Most patients are being discharged after primary treatment. So far, 102 patients were admitted to Hirakud UCHC and 20 were referred to VIMSAR, Burla.”
The CDMO informed that a joint verification has already been conducted in presence of the special team which visited from Sambalpur. “We have shared our inputs and insights with the team. There is no chance of any further spread of diarrhoea,” she assured.
Earlier, the district health authorities had claimed that contamination of supply water was the possible cause of the diarrhoea outbreak as faecal content was found in water. However, PHED officials refuted the claims and said water samples were found to be within controlled parameters and the cause of the outbreak might be something else.
When the CDMO was questioned about the exact cause of the diarrhoea outbreak, she refused to comment. PHED SDO Gulshan Sahu could not be reached for his comment.