Odisha On Alert Mode After Cholera Cases Detected In Rourkela

With the detection of some cases of cholera in Odisha's Rourkela city, the state government on Tuesday directed health housing and urban development secretaries to visit the city to monitor the situation at ground level.

While more than 1,000 people have suffered from diarrhoea, six of them died in the steel city in a span of seven days. Many patients have been admitted to Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH).

"We have sent stool samples of some patients to Sundargarh Medical College for testing, which confirmed the presence of c cholera-causing bacteria," said Dr Sudha Pradhan, director in-charge, RGH.

As the situation remained alarming in the city, senior officials of the Chief Minister's Officer (CMO) reviewed the situation this evening and directed Health Secretary Shalini Pandit and Housing and Urban Development Secretary G Mathivathanan to visit the Cholera-affected town, informed Director Public Health, Niranjan Mishra.

Rourkela Municipal Commissioner Subhankar Mahapatra said the entire administration is on alert and taking all measures to control the disease. Nine rapid action teams have been formed to attend to any emergency and all the urban health centers have been activated to treat the patients, he said, adding, that all the leakages in water supply pipes have been repaired.

Mr Mahapatra said ASHA and Anganwadi workers have been mobilised to visit each household to create awareness among the people to maintain proper hygiene and sanitation.

"The situation is under control and in-patient admission into different hospitals is on a decline trend now. The situation will improve in the next two to three days," the commissioner said.
 

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