Diarrhoea outbreak: Mamata to meet Atin Ghosh, discuss remedies

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will meet Atin Ghosh, member, mayor in council (health) of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Monday to discuss about the steps taken by the civic authorities to tackle the outbreak of diarrhoea in some parts of the southern fringes of the city on Monday.

Nearly 400 residents of Baghajatin and its neighbourhood had been afflicted with diarrhoea for the past one week. The worst affected areas are wards 101, 102 and 110.

Meanwhile, Cholera bacteria was found in the water samples from Rajabazar, Topsia and Tangra. The affected wards are 28, 29, 58, 59 and 66. Of the stool samples collected from the patients who had been admitted to Baghajatin State General Hospital, Cholera bacteria was found in only one of them. Doctors of KMC have asked people not to panic as patients suffering from Cholera are treated with ORS solution and there are specific anti biotics. It may be mentioned that Dr Dilip Mahalanobis had discovered ORS solution during the Bangladesh freedom movement in 1971. During his visit to the camps in Bongaon, he found a large number of people suffering from diarrhoea. He mixed salt with water and the solution was given to the victims. It worked like a miracle and now it has become the standard practice to treat Cholera victims with ORS.

The KMC used to wash city roads with unfiltered water daily but it had to be abolished following a massive outbreak of Cholera in 1968. Many people, particularly the slum dwellers, were found to be suffering from Cholera after they either had consumed unfiltered water or cleaned the utensils with it.