Diarrhoea breaks out in Koraput

Jeypore, Aug 14 (UNI) A year after diarrhoea claimed more than 200 lives and affected around 20,000 people in Koraput district, the dreaded disease returned with a vengeance.

Though official sources said only two people died in Dasmantpur block in the disease so far, but unofficial reports said as many as 20 people were killed and more than 1500 tribals affected by diarrhoea in Laxmipur, Dasmantpur and Nandapur blocks of the district during the past 15 days.

The pople of Dasmantpur demonstrated in front of the visiting Director of Health yesterday, demanding immediate action to control the disease.

The local people said the disease first hit Dasmantpur, where three died and over 100 were affected. Soon it spread to neighbouring Laxmipur. The disese had so far affected more than 1200 people and claimed 15 lives in these two blocks.

Although the administration was trying its best to control the disease, the continuous rain in these two blocks negated all the efforts and was spreading to new areas everyday.

Failure of the mobile team to access into the interior areas due to absense of road connectivity aggravated the situation further.

Nandapur block, which was not affected by diarrohea last year, came under the grip of the disease this year. The disease claimed five lives and affected more than 300 people mainly in Hatibari and Nandaka GPs of the block.

Meanwhile, several senior level officials, including RDC, visited the affected Dasmantpur and Laxmipur blocks and reviewed the siutation.

Local representatives of different political parities demanded before the administration to mobilse extra doctors and medical staff from other districts to curb the disease .

UNI XC-BD SJC RD 2052