42 down with jaundice, Batala authorities jittery

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Batala, February 8

With 42 persons having contracted jaundice in the past three days in Batala, the district administration has gone into an overdrive to check the spread of jaundice. Officials are leaving no stone unturned to prevent the repeat of 2012 gastroenteritis outbreak, when 42 people died.

Vikas Partap, Secretary of the Local Bodies, and DK Tiwari, the Chief Executive Officer of the Water Supply and Sewerage Board, toured the worst affected areas in the morning.

So far, 42 patients are being treated at the Civil Hospital. Though the count is likely to go up, the authorities urged residents not to panic.

A senior officer of the district, seeking anonymity, said the disease spread because sewage got mixed with drinking water. Congress MLA Ashwani Sekhri blamed the district administration for the disease outbreak.

Today morning as more and more cases were being reported in private and government hospitals, civil hospital doctors called Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dr Abhinav Trikha, who rushed to the affected areas.

The DC formed a team, headed by Komal Mittal, Assistant Commissioner, to deal with the outbreak that, according to health experts, has the potential to snowball into a major epidemic.

The team, which also has Gurdaspur Civil Surgeon Dr RS Randhawa as its member, camped in the civil hospital throughout the day. “The situation is under control. Several teams have been formed to collect blood samples, particularly from Chittorgarh, where the incidence of the disease is high,” said Mittal.

Though administration officers denied any patient falling seriously ill, sources said two residents were admitted to the civil hospital in a serious condition.