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Diarrhoea toll 60; saline shortage aggravates situation

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA NOV. 7. Nearly 60 people, mostly children, have died of diarrhoeal diseases in the northern segment of West Bengal's Malda district over the past five weeks. With the toll mounting each day, the spread of the epidemic — one of the worst in recent years — has taken the local health authorities by surprise. About 7,000 people have been affected.

An acute shortage in saline supplies had aggravated the situation, the district's Additional Chief Medical Officer of Health (ACMOH), G.C. Sarkar, told The Hindu today.

The authorities have been able to meet barely 30 per cent of the required supplies despite repeated requests to the State health administration. Suppliers in Bihar and Delhi are being approached for replenishment of stocks in the health centres of the affected blocks.

As local markets have virtually no stocks, people have been flocking to the health centres since early last month and many have been turning to quacks.The recent blacklisting of two State-run firms by the West Bengal Government for allegedly supplying poor quality saline to some State hospitals has contributed to the shortage, according to Dr. Sarkar.

The worst-affected areas spanned seven blocks. Most of the affected people were suffering from malnutrition.

The authorities have failed to combat the disease and the crisis is a consequence of the "total breakdown in communication between the district authorities and the State administration," said Gautam Chakravarty, sabhadhipathi of the zilla parishad.

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