Panic gripped the district headquarter town Sundargarh following outbreak of diarrhoea, as many people fell ill after consuming allegedly contaminated pipe-water, supplied by local Public Health Department (PHD), during the last two days.
As many as 60 patients were admitted in the district headquarter hospital .Several others were given outdoor treatment in government and private nursing homes of the town.
Bikranta Kindo, Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) of Sundargarh said, people with complaints of loose motion and vomiting have rushed to the hospital since Monday and fresh cases of diarrhoea are still pouring in.
Medical teams have been put in service in localities including Ranibagicha, Mahadevpara, Mahantiapara, Sunaripara, Mahantipara and RRT-colony situated on the bank of IB-river, where people were affected after consuming PHD water supply.
PHD and health officials have been taking all preventive measures to control the disease. Preventive medicines were given to people who were advised to consume the water after proper boiling.
Work on replacement of old and damaged underground pipes in affected localities have been continuing on war-footing.
Kindo also attributed outbreak of diarrhoea to suspected contamination of underground pipe water supply.
Water samples from main water supply plant and water from house supplies have been sent to Central Research Laboratory at Bhubaneswar for testing.
PHD officials were asked to improve the filtering system in the main water supply plant, he said.
