4 dies of diarrhoea in Odisha's Sundergarh district, many others admitted to hospital

 Bhubaneswar: As many as persons have died of diarrhoea in Odisha’s Sundergarh district and many others are undergoing treatment at the Rourkela Government Hospital after suffering from the disease.

According to sources, the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) has so far received 102 patients. Of them, four have died.

 The deceased include an elderly man, two women and a girl.

The number of patients has been on the rise since December 10 and a special ward has been set up to treat the patients.

To tackle the situation, the district health department has also increased the number of beds in the hospital.

The RGH superintendent Dr Sandhyarani Pradhan said patients were coming from different areas such as Udit Nagar, Kissan Tola, Vedvyas, Panposh and Chhend in and around Rourkela city.

“Earlier, we suspected it could be cholera. But the symptoms proved us wrong. Doctors treating the patients diagnosed it as viral diarrhoea. Since we don’t have a microbiologist, we have sent the stool samples to Sundergarh for testing.”

A social worker, Pushpa Lenka alleged the situation could have been avoided had the concerned officials acted early.

“We saw a severe drinking water problem after the rains that lashed the city 15 days ago. The taps were dispensing muddy water. At places, water supply pipes had also developed cracks. Though we brought this to the attention of the concerned officials, they just ignored it saying they would look into it. But, they did nothing,” alleged Lenka.