Bhubaneswar: Two more children of Narayapatna in Odisha’s Koraput have succumbed to suspected diphtheria.
While one of the deceased, a five-year-old of Bikrampur village under Narayanpatna block, died at a health facility at Narayanpur on Thursday, another succumbed at MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur on Wednesday.
The Odisha Public Health Department, however, is yet to ascertain the cause of death.
According to family members of the deceased, the children first had a fever and later there was swelling in their throat. The doctors, however, did not mention the disease to them. “It was perhaps a new disease,” a relative of a deceased told the media.
With this, the number of recent deaths among children has touched six in the district. Last week, three had succumbed in Gatiguda village.
Odisha Director of Public Health Dr Nilakantha Mishra, in a statement issued to the press on Friday, said that though he has received information of a death in Narayapatna, it is not clear whether the death was due to diphtheria. “According to information received from Narayanpatna, the child was brought to the hospital very late, so the doctors could not save him. Whether it was diphtheria death or death due to some reason will be ascertained after the test report is received,” he said.
The state government has intensified surveillance and containment measures in Koraput and neighbouring districts with camps being set up and samples collected for test. “Surveillance and isolation is on. Two deaths were found to have happened due to pneumonia and they also had sickle cell disease,” he informed.
Mishra further said steps are also being taken to arrest transmission of jaundice in Sambalpur but the cases will rise a little more and then the situation will stabilise.
Elaborating on the jaundice outbreak, he said once the Hepatitis enters the body it stays in incubation for some time before the symptoms are seen. “So the cases are up and this will continue for some time as those in the incubation period will now have the symptoms. However, it is important to control transmission of disease through food, water and humans and the government is taking all measures for it.”
“Arrangements have been made for potable drinking water supply and people are being urged to avoid eating outside. If food and water used by a jaundice-infected person is shared with others, the disease will be transmitted to others,” he said.
Informing that WATCO is actively replacing all water pipelines, Mishra also said that according to RMRC, there is no vaccine for Hepatitis A and the disease gets cured on its own.
On dengue outbreak in the state, Mishra said that it is under control now. At least 20 cases were detected in different districts on Thursday, taking the total to 288. He said that all urban bodies have been asked to take required measures to prevent dengue mosquito menace.
“As Bhubaneswar and Cuttack have a considerably high population, so we are more alert. A public health advisory has been issued for dengue prevention,” said Mishra and added that the number of cases this year has doubled since testing started early and it started raining early too.
