On Giriyappa Road North in T. Nagar, two homes are in mourning: one, where two-and-a-half-year-old A.S. Varun Pandian died on Friday, and another, where 32-year-old G. Mahendran died on Saturday.
Residents of the housing board tenements on the street say both suffered similar symptoms: severe vomiting and diarrhoea. Fears of outbreak of cholera or any other disease are now prevalent in the neighbourhood, which has garbage piled up along the streets and residents say the water is discoloured and smelly. Another man, 50-year-old R. Ramachandran, has also gone to hospital with complaints of vomiting and diarrhoea, his wife Vasanthi said.
However, Chennai Corporation and the Directorate of Public Health officials said there were no signs of cholera or any other water-borne diseases in the area, that the chlorination levels in the water there had been checked constantly and two health camps were held in the area on Saturday.
K. Mala, Mahendran’s sister, said, “For two days, my brother was continuously vomiting and wasn’t even able to hold down water. And then, he began having diarrhoea. He went to one of the health camps here, but did not recover with the medicines prescribed to him and we then took him to a private hospital. He died on the way to the Government Royapettah Hospital. He was unable to speak towards the end.” Mr. Mahendran, who was a painter, is survived by his wife and his one-month-old daughter.
Director of Public Health K. Kolandaisamy said the case had been diagnosed as Hepatitis. “As of now, there is no outbreak of cholera or any other disease in the area,” he said. Ward councillor P. Arumugam said four lorry-loads of garbage had already been removed and that the water was clean.
Varun Pandian’s mother, Shivashankari had just brought him back from school on Thursday and given him some snacks, when he started vomiting. “He kept vomiting and then had loose motions. I rushed him to a private doctor who gave us some medicines. The next morning, I took him to the doctor again but he told me to go to the Children’s hospital. There, they told us he was in very serious condition and he died some hours later,” she said, in tears. Director of the ICH S. Sundari however said Varun had died of a central nervous system infection with sepsis. “There was no evidence of cholera,” she said.
Another resident, S. Shanthi, said her mother, 72-year-old J. Grace, had had loose motion for the last two days.
C. Jagatha, a resident said the water in the locality hadn’t been clean since the rains. “This whole area was flooded, with water reaching up to the first floors. Sewage water had mixed with drinking water, and we then had to block a portion of the sump to stop the contamination. A lot of bleaching powder has been sprinkled but we still have to let the water out before it can be completely clean,” she said. Another resident said there was still a lot of un-cleared garbage.
Some residents said they bought water cans, while others said they boiled drinking water.
