Doctors Tread Streams & Muddy Roads To Reach Patients Amid Diarrhoea Deaths In Odisha’s Kandhamal

Phulbani: Amid diarrhoea deaths reported from Odisha’s Kandhamal district, doctors are leaving no stone unturned to reach out to people in remote hamlets of Kotgarh block affected by the disease.

On Thursday, a team of doctors and para-medics led by Kandhamal CDM & PHO Dr Bijay Kumar Panda rode on motorcycles through muddy roads and small streams to provide treatment to patients in Durgapanga panchayat of Kotgarh, sources said.

At least 9 people, including a pregnant woman, have reportdely died and many others affected in Kanibari and Sindhibali villages in Durgapanga panchayat following fever and diarrhoea.

Sources said the cases were reported after several villagers, who attended a death ritual feast, complained of food poisoning. As both the villages are inaccessible, information on the villagers’ condition reached Durgapanga after three days, the sources added.

On being informed about the matter, CDM & PHO Dr Panda constituted a team and left for Kotgarh.

Earlier, a health team from Durgapanga and Kotgarh hospitals visited the affected villages and brought five of the affected residents, including a three-month-old baby, to Kotgarh hospital for treatment. They were later shifted to Baliguda hospital as their condition deteriorated.

The team collected blood samples and distributed medicines among the affected villagers.Since some of the affected persons are suffering from high fever with symptoms of malaria, they were given medicines accordingly.

The villagers have been advised to consume boiled water and desist from eating wild mushrooms, sources added.