Guntur: Diarrhoea death toll increases to 15
The first case was registered on March 5 and since then, there has been no respite.
GUNTUR: Three more persons succumbed to diarrhoea in Guntur increasing the death toll to 15 on Thursday. Ninety others are still undergoing treatment at GGH, despite 12 days of outbreak of diarrhoea. According to the reports, 13 people died due to diarrhoea in Guntur in the last one week. In the last couple of days, the doctors said diarrhoea was coming under control but it again gained grip on Guntur with Nuka Raju of Potturivari Thota, Ganga Bhavani of Kothapeta and Burraiah of BS Nagar in Guntur succumbing to death while undergoing treatment in GGH on Thursday.
Initially, Guntur Municipal Corporation claimed food poison as the cause of diarhoea outbreak on March 5 but later found that contamination of drinking water led to the disease. The GMC further found drinking water supplied from over head tank of BR Stadium spread diarrhoea due to damaged water supply pipelines and stopped water supply to the old Guntur area which was severely affected. Then they carried out super chlorination and started changing damaged water supply pipelines.
The GMC also said they had repaired the water tank at BR Stadium to control the epidemic. However, it spread to new areas in II Town. According to the reports, 90 people came to GGH for treatment from Wednesday night to Thursday and 82 diarrhoea victims are still undergoing treatment. The GMC is drawing drinking water from Krishna river at Prakasam barrage and shifting it to GMC reservoirs and further to water treatment plants in Guntur city through Guntur channel which passes through Mangalagiri, China Kakani, Kaza and other areas.
Locals Sk Mahbub, N. Krishna said the GMC already repaired the BR Stadium water tank and cleaned the main water supply pipelines in Old Guntur through super chlorination but diarrhoea is still prevalent in the II Town area. They suspected that the water might have been polluting in Guntur channel on way to Guntur.