Ludhiana, November 29
With the threat of jaundice assuming an epidemic form, looming large over the city residents, the Health Department has failed to rise to the occasion as far as spreading awareness about the disease and taking necessary preventive measures are concerned. In the grim scenario, the victims and affected areas are left to fend for themselves. With no one to look up to, the residents of Haibowal, the worst affected locality, believe that they could be cured only when some jharewala tied a dhaaga in the neck of the diseased.
A survey by the Tribune team in the areas where the residents were in the grip of jundice revealed that they had never been visited by any of the Health Department official during these days. “These doctors can not help us even if they visited and the disease was a result of some evil done in the past”, said Joginder, a resident of Gopal Nagar in Haibowal, whose three-year-old son Nitin is suffering from jaundice for over last two weeks. Unfortunately, due to lack of awareness, the family goes to some hakim for Nitin’s treatment.
Vipan Kumar, an eighth standard student of Puja Model School is also suffering from jaundice for the last seven days. He said, “I take the medicine from some halwai in Chaura Bazaar. The person mixes the medicine in a paan and we have to eat it. The medicine is really effective and I am much relieved”.
It may be mentioned that these are not the isolated cases. A number of residents in Joshi Nagar, Hakikat Nagar, Gogi Market, Gopal Nagar and Kapil Park are suffering from jaundice. Due to lack of awareness, they prefer to stay away from doctors.
Mr Raju Sonkar, a property dealer in Gopal Nagar said: “Not even a single person from the Department of Health visited us. People are not educated here. They don’t know the symptoms and precautions of the disease and do whatever they think is best for them”.
Raj Kumar, another resident said that pigs outnumbered people in these areas. He
said, "People take these stray pigs and cut them on roads. We can not stop anyone. Pigs are the company of our children. We have talked to the concerned officials many times but to no avail”.
Dr Rajinder Kaur, Civil Surgeon had claimed yesterday that health authorities had swung into action after getting the information of 32 cases of jaundice. She also said that surveillance teams were instructed to visit these areas but the residents of Gopal Nagar, Gogi Market and Pavittar Nagar said that they were not aware of any such visit by the Health Department officials.
The disease has reportedly struck various slum areas in the city but the specific cases which were confirmed by Civil Surgeon office, have been detected from Haibowal and its surrounding areas.
Raju, who runs a mutton shop in Gogi Market said,” There is no proper sewerage system, no facility of drinking water. Heaps of garbage could be seen on the roads. The disease had struck the locality last year also”.
The affected residents said that they were continuously getting contaminated water which was due to leakage in sewer pipes. All of them complained that they had never been educated about the preventive measures.
Meanwhile, Dr A.S. Chawla, district epidemiologist, while talking to Ludhiana Tribune said that no fresh case of jaundice was reported today. He said that the department had also taken blood samples of the critical patients.
It may be recalled that 32 cases of jaundice were reported by the Civil Surgeon yesterday.
