Chhattisgarh - Diarrhoea outbreak - up to 60 fatalities

[Ronan Kelly]

Mystery disease claims 12 lives in Chhattisgarh
By IANSJune 14th, 2010 RAIPUR - A mysterious disease has claimed at least a dozen lives and affected more than 150 people in a remote Chhattisgarh village, a health official said Monday.


?I can confirm at least 12 deaths and more than 150 have been taken ill after a diarrhoea-like disease broke out in Dharmpur village in Bijapur district close to the Andhra Pradesh border,? a source here in the directorate of health services told IANS.

The village is over 500 km south of state capital Raipur.

?All the victims died after consistent vomiting and others too have similar problems. Since the area is in the interiors and also a Maoist stronghold, we are finding it difficult to provide urgent medical help,? the source added.

?The deaths were reported in the past two-three days. But more information will be available only when our medical team meets the affected people,? the source said.
http://blog.taragana.com/health/2010/06/14/mystery-disease-claims-12-lives-in-chhattisgarh-24155/

21 dead, govt says drink rain water
Thu, Jun 24 12:30 PM
Raipur, June 24 -- As many as 21 tribals have died of diarrhoea in Chhattisgarh's Maoist-affected Bijapur district. And how has the district administration reacted? It has told the tribals to drink only rainwater! Eight villages in the district, 400 km south of Raipur are affected by the infection, said R. Prasanna, the collector of Bijapur, while confirming the deaths.

He said the Maoist insurgency and poor road connectivity to the affected villages were coming in the way of delivering on-time health services to the people. "We will ask tribal villagers to consume rain water and they should chlorinate the drinking water sources as safeguard.

The diarrhoea deaths had resulted owing to drinking of contaminated water," he added. The government will dig tube wells in the village only after the monsoon season.

Left unsaid was the sub-text: the villagers would have to wait for clean drinking water. The Bijapur Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Sujeet Biswas, told HT that so far, 155 serious cases of diarrhea have been reported in Bijapur this year.

"We act on delayed information and the situation gets worse by the time the medical team reaches the affected villages," he said.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/32/20100624/1053/tnl-21-dead-govt-says-drink-rain-water_1.html

24 die of diarrhoea in Bijapur
Bijapur | Wednesday, Jun 23 2010 IST

At least 24 people were killed and 25 others taken ill following outbreak of acute diarrhoea in several tribal-dominated villages of naxal-infested Bijapur distruct during the last fortnight.

According to Health official sources, while five deaths had been reported in Chingelur, three had succumbed to the disease in Kotaguda village in the last couple of days.

Besides, more than 25 people of these two villages were suffering from viral fevers and severe diarrhoea as poor tribal folks were forced to take contaminated water after handpumps in the area became defunct.

Bijapur District Collector R Prasanna confirmed that eight people had died of the disease in the two affected villages of Chingelur and Kotaguda, saying that medical teams had rushed to the area.

Chief Medical Officer Sujeet Biswas was also camping in the affected area, he added.

Since the outbreak of the disease a fortnight ago, Gadiguda village had accounted for the maxium 13 deaths, while three had died in Komatpalli, the sources said.


-- (UNI) -- 23DR65.xml

http://www.netindia123.com/showdetails.asp?id=1533140&cat=India&head=24+die+of+diarrhoea+in+Bijapur

-snip-

At least 30 people died in and around the village last week from diarrhoea, a seasonal killer when monsoon rains pollute the river water the villagers use to drink and bathe their cattle.
-snip-
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE65R28A20100628

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Chhattisgarh - Diarrhoea outbreak - up to 30 fatalities

Re: Chhattisgarh - Diarrhoea outbreak - up to 30 fatalities

?Cholera? Outbreak Kills Over ?60? In Bastar

By Javed Iqbal

12 July, 2010



A suspected cholera outbreak has killed around an estimated 60 people in Bijapur District of South Bastar, Chhattisgarh since the beginning of the 7th of June this year when the first fatality was confirmed in Gadiguda village in Pamed Block.

At the same time, there has been no cessation of violence between the Maoists and the police. On the 6th of July, according to the local police, a gunfight had taken place near the village of Basaguda where a health clinic is set-up, and the police recovered an IED, or a ?tiffin bomb?. There were no casualties on either side.

?We were on patrol when we saw them, they fired upon us and ran away.? Says Assistant Sub Inspector Patle of Basaguda police station, holding the detonator of the ?tiffin bomb? he recovered in the encounter. The ?tiffin? is filled with stones and scraps of metal, and according to the villagers of Basaguda, the police found the bomb buried in the earth.

?There might be an operation tonight,? Said ASI Chauhan from Avapalli police station on the 7th of July, ?And I can?t share any other details with you.?

However, there were no reported encounters by the police or by the Maoists on the night of the 7th of July, but again in the dead of night, on the 8th of July, on the last day of the two-day bandh, the Maoists had fired onto Basaguda police station. There were again no casualties reported.

Meanwhile, the government claims that 38 people were killed by diarrhoea, and not cholera, and that fact is disputed by numerous independent sources working in the field.

The village of Kothaguda for instance in Pusbaka Panchayat of Basaguda block lists only three fatalities over the last 10 days in the official government list, yet Venkat Lakshmi, an angaanbaadi worker who had worked in the village to control the outbreak lists those three names along with a total of nine fatalities, including those of three children under the age of five. Those six names aren?t included in the official government list.

For instance, Avlam Bhime (35) and her son Avlam Raju (3) of Kothaguda died on the same day, before any medical care could get to them and thus there is no record of their death. The MOH itself lists around 16 fatalities in Basaguda block in the recent outbreak out of which 10 fatalities alone come from the village of Chinnagelur, near Tarem village.

The Bijapur District Program Manager for the National Rural Health Mission, Mausam G. Muske, has also confirmed the fatalities have taken place where the health teams couldn?t access the villagers.

?The important thing is to access these areas, and we?re low on man power. There are 64 villagers in Usur block itself, and we sent people to wherever we?ve heard about cases of diarrhoea.? He says.

Yet most of the fatalities have taken place on account of inaccessible terrain further in the jungle and contrary to local media reports there aren?t 80 patients in the rehydration camps in Basaguda or Usur. But the outbreak is still widespread and specifically, out of reach.

?We managed to save the life of every person who made it to a health clinic.? Continues Mausam, ?We?ve followed protocol by WHO standards and treated patients for cholera,? he says, yet many officials, refute that there?s an outbreak of cholera, even though numerous other doctors and health workers in the field have diagnosed cases of cholera.

As per official records, there were 168 DVD cases (Dysentery-Vomiting-Diarrhoea) treated in Pamed block, while 115 were treated in Basaguda block and 14 were treated in Usur block.

It is yet unclear whether ground water is contaminated or the rivulets that run through a majority of the villages. The three affected blocks, Basaguda, Pamed and Usur, border Andhra Pradesh are also highly sensitive areas, known to harbour a strong Maoist presence, and many of these areas are even ?liberated zones.?

The response to the outbreak was relatively quick ? numerous clinics were set-up in Usur, Avapalli and Basaguda by the MOH and independent NGOs and organizations. Volunteers were selected to travel into the ?interior villages? and educate people on the illness and more importantly, to put in place preventive measures to control the outbreak.

?Patients used to come to the clinic at even nine in the night on bell-gaadi,? says Satish Kumar Nayak, Rural Medical Assistant, running one of the clinics in Basaguda. He is now one of the few healthcare workers left in Basaguda block, along with reputed international organization Doctors Without Borders. Many organisations and volunteers were recalled by the state before the two-day bandh was announced by the Maoists in response to the killing of top politburo member Azad. Yet the New Indian Express travelled through the area without any incident, nor harassment by the Maoists. And many observers believe that the government didn?t need to recall the medical teams as the Maoists aren?t known to harass health workers.

And according to some sources, the temporary clinic set-up in Basaguda village may turn into a permanent clinic due to the high influx of patients from across the block.

Cholera is not the only illness ailing Basaguda block. In the village of Lingagiri, two villagers, Angela Allama (40) w/o Naga, and Chandra Sukli (60) w/o Malaiya are bedridden and incapable of moving. Doctors Without Borders had apparently referred their cases to Jagdalpur?s Maharani Hospital, but the villages do not have the money to take them there.

A bus runs from Basaguda to Jagdalpur and the ticket costs Rs.130, which would run a minimum cost of Rs.520 for a patient and one family member to make the round trip. As it is, the bus hasn?t been running for two days due to the bandh announced by the Maoists.

This article appeared in its original form on the 9th of July, 2010 issue of Indian Express

http://www.countercurrents.org/iqbal120710.htm