Outbreak of cholera contained to great extent: Basu

Bhubaneswar, Aug 31 (UNI) The Orissa government today claimed that cholera in Kashipur and Dasmantpur blocks of undivided Koraput district, has been contained to a large extent to the multi-pronged medical intervention.

Orissa Health Secretary Chinmay Basu told newsmen here that no deaths due to cholera have been reported from the two dominated blocks during the last two days.

He, however, deaths due to gastroenteritis, blood dysentery and malaria had been reported from the places and were being attended to.

Mr Basu said the three dominated blocks- Kashipur in Rayagada district, Dasmantpur in Koraput district and Thualampur Rampur in Kalahandi district -- had been quarantined and the medical teams posted in the area had successfully treated 6050 patients.

The state government, he said, has launched the Information, Education and Communication(IEC) Programme under the direct supervision of the UNDP and posted four senior Orissa Administrative Officers(OAS) to monitor the programmes in the three affected blocks and their surrounding areas.

At many places, the government has sought the assistance of the local panchayat representatives and the police constable to physically lift the affected people to the nearby hospitals for better treatment.

Ever since the outbreak of cholera which had so far claimed more than 100 lives in the two blocks,the government had pressed 22 medical teams in Kashipur, 16 medical teams in Dasmantpur and three medical teams in Thualampur to treat the patients.

Doctors from the three government run medical colleges and various district headquarter hospitals have been drawn for the purpose.

Mr Basu said as per the advice of the experts of the National Communicable Disease Centre, the government has taken a decision to launch the disinfections of all the water sources in the affected areas and the neighbouring blocks on a continuous basis.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Agriculture Minister S N Naik, Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal, Leader of Opposition J B Pattnaik, Pradesh Congress Chief Jayadev Jena and former Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang had already visited the affected blocks.

Revenue Minister M Samal who visited the two affected blocks yesterday, said since the outbreak of the disease in August, 89 people have died in three districts of Rayagada and Koraput and Kalahandi. While 50 people died of the disease in Kashipur block of Rayagada district, 33 have succumbed to the disease in Dasmantpur in Koraput district and six in Thuamul-Rampur block of Kalahandi district.

UNI