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Hostel girls in grip of viral infection

By Our Staff Reporter

ELURU DEC. 30. All the 25 girl students of the social welfare hostel at Yarnagudem in West Godavari are in the grip of viral infection. While four of them have been admitted to the Government hospital here, the rest are undergoing treatment in various hospitals in the district.

Hostel authorities had reportedly informed the condition of the children to their parents on December 23. The children were then suffering from high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea. Later, the parents took their wards home for Christmas vacation.

However, there has been no improvement in their condition since then. Instead, they have developed a complication of tingling and numbness in their lower limbs making them difficult to walk.

According to the Eluru Government Hospital Superintendent, Y.V. Bhanumurthy, the disorder is known as `peripheral neuropathy' in medical parlance that is caused due to viral infection. Contamination of water and poor hygiene were the causative factors for the spread of infection, he said, while adding that malnutrition and overcrowding of inmates in the hostel could have aggravated the spread of the viral infection, causing neurological disorder.

Dr. Bhanumurthy said that a request was made to the Guntur General Hospital to depute a team of neuro physicians and social and preventive medicine for a visit to the hostel on a fact-finding mission. The team is expected to visit the hostel on Wednesday.

Water samples would be collected from the hostel and sent to the Director, Health Services, for a study, he explained.

Meanwhile, the Collector, Sanjay Jaju, on Tuesday visited the girl students undergoing treatment in the Government hospital. They complained to the Collector that the pipelines meant for supply of drinking water were passing by a septic tank in the hostel. Besides, the quality of food served to them was not up to the mark, they charged.

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