Karnataka - Gulbarga   

1,442 gastroenteritis cases reported in Gulbarga district

Special Correspondent

Three cases of cholera detected

GULBARGA: Of the 1,442 cases of gastroenteritis reported in Gulbarga district from January till now, seven persons have died.

The District Health and Family Welfare Officer, Panduranga T. Pujari, told The Hindu that after the onset of the monsoon in June alone 70 cases of gastroenteritis were reported of which three have died.

The worst affected taluk is Aland with many cases being reported from there. As many as 29 cases have been reported in Bhusnur village in Aland, where a child died of the disease even before it could be admitted to hospital.

Dr. Pujari said that three confirmed cholera cases have been reported in the district so far and all of them were discharged after treatment.

He said 28 cases of gastroenteritis have been reported in Anur village in Aland taluk followed by 22 cases in Nimbarga, eight in Yelasangi and three in Madiyal. While one child died at a hospital at Nimbarga, another died at the government hospital at Itaga village in Jewargi taluk, he added.

Dr. Pujari said one of the main reasons for the outbreak of the disease is the contamination of drinking water owing to the poor maintenance of water storage facilities and tanks. He also said that gram panchayats, which are responsible for supply of drinking water in villages, are not chlorinating water properly.

While the outbreak of the disease is also being attributed to drinking water getting contaminated by sewage in several places, a majority of the cases are due to the contamination of drinking water in storage tanks in villages, which are poorly maintained, Dr Pujari said. Medical teams, which visited the affected villages, found to their shock that most of the gram panchayats do not have enough quantity of chlorine, Dr. Pujari said.

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