Bhubaneswar: Health Minister Mukesh Mahaling will be visiting areas in Jajpur district, where diarrhoea outbreak has affected several people, on Sunday.
This came amid criticism from the Opposition, which attacked Mahaling and Chief Minister Chief Minister for remaining busy with celebration of BJP government’s one year in power while people are dying of diarrhoea in Jajpur.
The CDMO, Prakash Chandra Bal, had earlier confirmed seven deaths due to the water-borne disease.
Meanwhile, there has been a drop in hospital admissions. “Today, the number of new patient admissions in various hospitals has significantly decreased, and no new areas have been reported affected by cholera. As of yesterday, patients admitted to various community health centres, the district headquarters hospital, and Cuttack Medical College are gradually recovering and returning home,” an official release said.
Director of Public Health Nilakantha Mishra said that 1,516 diarrhoea patients were admitted to various hospitals in the district. Of these, 1,306 have recovered and 210 are still under treatment.
Although some incidents occurred in Bhadrak and Cuttack districts, they were minor and did not pose a serious public health issue.
A control room, comprising the Health and Family Welfare Department’s health team, rapid action team, and public health team, is operating 24/7 at the district office. Grassroots-level workers are fully alert and actively working in the field.
The district administration had earlier cancelled Raja festival holidays for government officials as fresh cases were reported from three different places. People were also advised against attending mass feasts.
On Saturday, Director of National Health Mission Dr Brinda D and Special Secretary of the Health Department Dr. Bijay Kumar Mohapatra, visited the district to monitor the treatment of infected patients in hospitals.
To make field-level efforts more effective, three teams have been dispatched by the central government. “On the directive of the Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a seven-member health team and a three-member food safety team have been sent to Odisha. Similarly, a four-member special food quality team has been deployed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). These three teams collectively consist of 14 members,” it said.
The health team includes Dr. Nilam Somalkar from the Regional Directorate, Professor Dr. Shibani Lahiri from the Indian Institute of Public Health, Professor Dr. Srujan Mahanti, a microbiologist from AIIMS Bhubaneswar, Professor Dr. Bhagirathi Dwivedi, a paediatrician, Dr. Satyajit Subudhi from the National Centre for Disease Control, and infectious disease specialists Dr. Premjit Ghosh and Dr. Gautam Choudhury from the Indian Pharmacological Research Centre in Kolkata. The food safety team comprises Dr. Geetanjali Sharma from the National Food Laboratory in Kolkata, technical officer Ms. Nayana, and Dr. Shashikant Bhuyan, Deputy Director of FSSAI’s Eastern Region.
The FSSAI special team includes Director Sweety Behera, Deputy Directors Sonika Varma and Prasanna Singh, and Nandita Das, Central Food Safety Officer for the Northern Region.
These teams will visit affected areas, assess the public health situation, investigate the causes of the disease, and provide necessary recommendations to field-level officials, state, and central governments, it added.
