Bhubaneswar: With the death of one more patient on Monday, the toll of diarrhea deaths in the steel city Rourkela in Odisha went up to six. Earlier, five people from different wards of the smart city had succumbed to this water-borne disease.
“As of now 555 people are being treated in different hospitals in Rourkela and adjoining areas and the condition 20 of them is critical,” Dr Niranjan Mishra, Director of Public Health, Odisha, said today. According to him, 163 patients are admitted to Rourkela General Hospital and Ispat General Hospital, while the serious patients who require treatment in the ICU have been shifted to Hi-Tech Hospital.
A team of medical experts from Bhubaneswar made a field visit to Rourkela and adjoining regions and found that unhygienic water is the main reason for the spread of the disease. “We have directed WATCO to increase the level of chlorine in the water being supplied to different areas of Rourkela Smart City,” Dr Mishra informed.
In addition, six mobile medical units are moving in the area to spot new patients, provide basic medicines to patients, and create awareness regarding diarrhea. At the same time, additional medics have been engaged in dealing with the situation, while the number of beds has been increased in different hospitals to treat the increasing number of patients.
Meanwhile, Rourkela MLA Sarada Nayak and Sundargarh Collector Harshad Parag visited the different hospitals in the city and took stock of the situation.
