As many as 32 people, including children and women, have fallen sick and admitted to hospital over the past 24 hours in the Patran block of Patiala district due to a diarrhoea outbreak, officials said on Sunday.
Of the 32 patients, 29 are admitted to the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Patran. Health teams have already rushed to the outbreak site, Ward number 15, in Patran town,” officials added.
Patiala health officials said that around nine cases were reported on Saturday evening, while 12 more cases were reported on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.
The patients continued to pour in on Sunday, with 11 more cases surfacing, taking the total count to 32.
Patiala civil surgeon Dr Sanjay Goyal said that health teams had already started door-to-door surveys in the affected area to identify cases and immediately shift them to the nearest medical facility.
“We have distributed ORS packets to the residents of the affected area to recover from diarrhoea and handed over 1,250 chlorine tablets to the residents to ensure potability of the drinking water,” Goyal said, who met the patients admitted to CHC-Patran.
Diarrhoea is usually a symptom of an infection in the intestinal tract that can be caused by a variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms. Infection is spread through contaminated food or drinking water or from person to person as a result of poor hygiene.
{{/usCountry}}Diarrhoea is usually a symptom of an infection in the intestinal tract that can be caused by a variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms. Infection is spread through contaminated food or drinking water or from person to person as a result of poor hygiene.
{{/usCountry}}Dr Divjot Singh, the district epidemiologist, said that they had collected six water samples to ascertain contamination of drinking water and six stool samples of patients to ascertain whether the outbreak was due to cholera or not. Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.
Health officials, on the door-to-door survey, said that illegal water connections and sewerage blockade might have caused the diarrhoea outbreak.
“Every second household in the area has an illegal open plastic pipe connection with the main water supply line. Leakages in the main water supply line of the village could be the possible reason for the outbreak,” said a senior health officer, pleading anonymity.