No let-up in jaundice cases in Solan

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 10

With 22 jaundice cases being reported today, the city has witnessed 50 cases in the past two days. The total number of cases had reached 355, said Chief Medical Officer Dr RK Daroch.

He said of 1,615 samples tested for jaundice, 355 had tested positive since January. As many as 195 of these cases were from Solan, 63 from Dharampur and the remaining from Sirmaur and Shimla districts. He said the maximum cases pertained to Shamti and Deoghat in Solan.

More cases were likely to surface in 5 to 10 days as the incubation period of jaundice ranged from 3 to 8 weeks, said a health official.

With lifting of water having been suspended for the last 25 days from the Ashwani Khud, Deputy Commissioner Madan Chauhan today convened a meeting of officials to look into the situation. Water shortage was plaguing the town and people were falling sick after consuming water from unsafe natural sources and hand pumps. The meeting was attended by officials of the Health, Irrigation and Public Health departments and the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB).

Officials presented the reports of water samples and it came to know that both raw and treated water had been tested.

It was learnt that a report would soon be sent to the state government with details of the lab reports of water samples. Since the lab reports conformed to the laid down norms, the probability of lifting water from the Ashwani Khud was high though officials of the IPH Department were reluctant to shoulder the onus. A shortage of 30 lakh litre of water was being witnessed in the town due to non-lifting of water from the Ashwani Khud and the people are facing severe water crisis since the last 25 days.