Diarrhoea outbreak in North Tripura, 9 dead

Agartala, Mar 12 : The BJP-IPFT government is faced with a challenge immediately after the alliance formed government in the state, with the outbreak of diarrhoea in North Tripura, which has killed as many as nine people, and is feared to take the shape of an epidemic.

Health minster Sudip Roybarman today sent a special medical team to the affected areas and reviewed the situation of summer diseases in the state. He directed officials to issue alert to all sub-divisional authorities for undertaking immediate emergency measures to combat any outbreak.

“I made it clear to all the officials that no one will be spared if something goes wrong due to negligence of duty at any level. I also asked director to provide satisfactory answers to me as to why nine people died in the past one week and why appropriate measures were not taken to arrest the spread of the disease right after the first incident,” Roybarman said.

He also pointed out that red-tapism in health department would not be accepted and said, “Human life is precious than anything else. Here no casual attitude and administrative delay would be tolerated.”

According to report, the death occurred in Muslim dominated bordering northern villages of Dharmanagar due to contaminated water. The outbreak was reported on March 2 last when entire administration was engaged in election counting at Piyaricherra, Ranibari and Sonaichari villages.

Many people are affected with diarrhoea, and while eight persons were admitted in different hospitals of Dharmanagar, most of the others affected with the disease have been undergoing treatment at home. A medical team had visited the affected areas and distributed medicines but the medicines did not yield any results.

The preliminary report revealed that the diarrhoea broke out in the locality due to consumption of polluted water. The villagers of the affected areas are using deep tube-well and stream flow as drinking water, which is the main cause of the outbreak.