Diarrhoea grips village near Palam Vihar

An outbreak of diarrhoea has gripped Gurgaon with more than 200 people, including children, reporting sick at the local hospital.

An outbreak of diarrhoea has gripped Gurgaon with more than 200 people, including children, reporting sick at the local hospital.

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The majority of victims are from Chauma village near Palam Vihar who have already registered with the state-run Gurgaon civil hospital.

The health department has urged the civic agencies supplying drinking water to the residents to increase chlorination and plug leakages in the supply lines, if any.

Though the district administration claimed that the number of patients did not cross 200 and was curbed in time, unconfirmed sources pegged the number at 500 and more.

The first shocker came from Chauma village near Palam Vihar in Gurgaon on Thursday when it reported 108 patients of diarrhoea - all migrant labourers.

The next day, 57 new patients from the same village complained of diarrhoea followed by 22 more the following day. The total touched 230 patients on Sunday with about 175 of them, being children younger than 10 years.

Pradip Kumar, executive engineer of Public Health Department, Gurgaon, admitted that one of the four bore-wells in Chauma village had not been fitted with the chlorination unit and this may have resulted in the outbreak of the disease in the locality.