Bhubaneswar: The spread of diarrhea in Odisha’s Rourkela has been checked and the situation is stable, Dr Niranjan Mishra, Director of Public Health, Odisha, told the media on Thursday.
“Six patients have succumbed to the water-borne disease at the Rourkela General Hospital (RGH) and they have been audited. We have information that a few more deaths have taken place in some private hospitals and we can only give the updated toll when these hospitals submit the details to us,” Dr Mishra said.
In other words, the official diarrhea toll in Rourkela is 6, while some have put the figure at 13.
According to the Public Health Director, tests of the stool samples of infected persons have shown that water contamination was the main cause of the spread of the disease. “Presence of E. coli bacteria have been found in the samples,” he said.
Currently, doctors, medical staff, Rourkela civic authorities, and volunteers are working round-the-clock to treat the patients as well as identify and plug the sources of water contamination. At the same time, the administration is using mobile vans to create awareness among the people about diarrhea and how to prevent it.
