The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Nine more hospitalised for gastroenteritis

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 11, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Nine more hospitalised for gastroenteritis

Staff Reporter

There is no outbreak of cholera, says Director of Isolation hospital

WISHING A SPEEDY RECOVERY: Mayor Mumtaz Begum (second from right) and Deputy Mayor Lakshminarayan (left) visited the Isolation hospital on Friday and spoke to the patients affected by gastroenteritis. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Nine persons were admitted to the Isolation hospital on Friday with complaints of gastroenteritis.

Over the past week and a half, 117 cases of gastroenteritis have been treated at the hospital. The cases have reported from areas such as Sriramapura, Prakashnagar, Jakkarayanakere, C.V. Raman Nagar, New Byappanahalli, M.S. Nagar, Sadanand Nagar, Mysore Road and Seshadripuram.

Because of the large number of cases from Jakkarayanakere, Health officials suspect that there may be contamination in the supply of drinking water. Health Minister R. Ashok visited some of the areas and spoke to patients at the Isolation hospital.

He has ordered a meeting with Health officials to discuss the issue on March 15.

Mayor Mumtaz Begum also visited the hospital and spoke to the patients. She held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.

Isolation hospital Director C.R. Thyagaraja admitted that the number of cases had increased over the past week, but stressed that there was no epidemic.

"We have done the hanging drop test, a preliminary test for cholera, on all the patients and none has tested positive for the disease. There is no outbreak of cholera," he said.

Mr. Thyagaraja said the increase in the incidence of gastroenteritis was common after a rainy spell.

He said the rise in the number of cases was not very sharp. Last December, 226 persons were treated for gastroenteritis, in January and February this year, the number of cases has been 166 and 207 respectively.

The Director said the incidence of gastroenteritis could be due to contaminated drinking water and poor personal hygiene.

"Drinking water, faeces and sewage all get mixed up in these areas following rainy spells. This leads to greater chances of a person becoming infected with bacteria," he said.

`No contamination'

A Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) engineer said the drinking water supply was not contaminated. Asked about the problems in the distribution system, the engineer said it was possible that contaminated water could have mixed with the water in the pipeline through leaks. "The city has 4,500 km of pipeline that help supply water to over 60 lakh consumers. It is possible that water may have been contaminated midway," he said.

He said the chlorine dosage would be increased from .1 parts per million to .2 parts per million.

"Since we only use chlorine in the gaseous form, the chances of finding residues are remote," he said. The Health Minister has directed the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike to take precautionary steps to prevent spread of infection in the wake of the onset of summer and pre-monsoon showers.

In a letter addressed to BMP Commissioner K. Jothiramalingam, Mr. Ashok asked the BMP authorities to take steps to ensure supply of clean drinking water, impose ban on sale of cut fruits on footpaths and ensure adequate supply of medicines to primary health centres. He appealed to the BMP Commissioner to take steps to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

The BMP officials said that as an emergency measure, ambulances along with doctors and medical staff had been kept ready at Srirampura BMP hospital and Malleswaram health centre.

The Mayor has appealed to the people not to panic as no case of cholera had been detected.

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