Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 16: More than 400 people from Rabta and neighbouring villages in Nagrota constituency have been affected due to diarrhea, reportedly caused by contaminated water.
According to the reports, since the detection of the outbreak on Saturday afternoon, over 400 people have fallen ill with diarrhea in village Rabta, Kerri, Ghorchayan Nallah and Bagani, about 50 kilometres from winter capital city.
“The outbreak of the water borne disease came into the notice of Health Department on Saturday when the Primary Health Centre (PHC), Kerri saw a sudden increase in diarrhea patients”, Director Health Jammu, BS Pathania said.
“As soon as the matter came into our notice, we dispatched three teams of doctors, paramedical staff and health workers, which visited door to door, examined the affected patients and distributed oral medicines and chlorine tablets among them”, Dr Pathania said and added that the situation is under control and no death was reported till now.
Moreover, to meet any eventuality, three ambulances at three different locations have also been made available day and night so that serious patients, if any, may be shifted timely to city hospitals.
He disclosed that the teams of doctors examined about 400 patients on Sunday and about 350 (including those examined on Sunday) today. However, no need was even felt to refer a single patient to any hospital and treatment as also medicines were provided to the affected people by visiting door to door.
Dr Pathania said after enquiring from the local populace it came to light that the disease broke out due to contamination of water because of busting of a water supply line at some point.
He said besides providing medicines to the affected patients, the teams of health workers distributed water-purifying tablets to every household and advised the people to boil drinking water for at least 30 minutes.
“We are keeping a hawk’s eye on the situation and our teams are still present there with reinforcement and ambulances and as of now the situation seems to be under control, as a single case of dehydration did not appear due to the disease,” he added.
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