GANDHINAGAR: The flood-ravaged Surat's return to normality has suffered a serious setback with reports of a possible attack of "plague'' haunting the people in the "diamond'' city in Gujarat.

Despite the strong denials by the State Health Department officials that the two deaths on Wednesday were caused by some viral fever and had nothing to do with plague, many people who had come to Surat from other States in search of work, were keen to go back to their native villages fearing "return of the epidemic" in the aftermath of the century's worst floods on August 7.

Though it is still not clear whether the epidemic of 1994 after heavy floods in which at least 65 people were killed, was actually plague or not with different experts and organisations having made contradictory claims, similar fears about a possible outbreakof `plague' after the 1998 floods, turned out to be wrong.

The reports of two deaths and that of at least five others suffering from diseases with some symptoms similar to plague made the Health Department officials rush senior doctors and staff to Surat to take all `necessary measures' and to reassure the local people.

Health Secretary Amarjit Singh said the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi, where serum samples of five "suspected plague'' patients had been sent, had confirmed in writing that they were suffering from leptospirosis. He said the samples taken from flood-affected areas and analysed had shown less than 0.3 per cent presence of rodent flea which nullify any possibility of outbreak of plague in the city. He said the reports of a possible plague were ``totally baseless'' and accused a section of the media of trying to create ``needless sensation.''

The Surat head of the Preventive Social Medicine department of the State Government, Vikasben Desai, while ruling out the possibility of an outbreak of `plague', advised the people to avoid large gatherings and joining congregations to protect themselves against communicable diseases. She also asked the people to take precautions while cleaning the flood-hit houses and roads and avoid touching dead rodents. However, much against the advice of health officials, most of the schools and colleges reopened in the city on Thursday after nearly a fortnight's closure due to floods.

The reports that the two persons who died and five others suffering from the same disease in Katargam area were the victims of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, transmitted by infected rodents had created panic in the city.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail