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| CMO files FIR against NC leader after heated exchange at medical camp | | 1,000 taken ill due to PHE’s contaminated water in Budgam | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Aug 5: Authorities have sounded a high alert and declared medical emergency after the entire population of over 1,000 people at Chhoon, near the district headquarters, complained of diarrhea and gastroenteritis, allegedly due to consumption of the contaminated water by Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department.
“Yes, it is an extremely serious situation as panic has spread in the whole department. Many of our colleagues are attempting to suppress this news of the epidemic with their contacts in media”, a senior official at Directorate of Health Services Kashmir told Early Times. He disclosed that a tiff was going on between the Health and the PHE departments as the officers were accusing each other of negligence and the water sample test results were still awaited from the two laboratories.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Budgam Dr Mehmooda Kar admitted that the first patients had approached the authorities on last Sunday. “In three days, we have set up a medical camp in the affected village and constituted a large team of doctors and paramedical staff to deal with this crisis. Till date, we have examined 773 patients and given them IV (Intra Veinous) fluids as many of them complained of, and carried symptoms of, diarrhea and gastroenteritis”, Dr Kar said.
“Let me clarify that it is not the epidemic of cholera. In that case, deaths would have occurred. Thank God, nobody has died. We have swung into action quickly and controlled the disease after we set up an emergency medical camp at Panchayat Ghar. We have discharged most of the patients though about a dozen of them are still under treatment at District Hospitals and the local Public Health Centres”, she said. Dr Kar said that Sarpanch of the affected village harassed her and her colleagues and used foul and threatening language inspite of the fact that the department had acted promptly and left no stone unturned in addressing the crisis. She said that she approached SHO and SP of Budgam with the request that FIR be registered against the Sarpanch for causing intimidation to the public servants. Reports from Budgam said that the Sarpanch Abdul Ahad is a prominent activist of the National Conference. He could not be reached over telephone.
Dr Kar as well as Block Medical Officer (BMO) Budgam Dr Tabbasum confirmed reports of a clash over the cause of the epidemic between Health and PHE departments. They said that the Health Department officials had collected the water samples and sent them for analysis to a laboratory operating under the Centre’s Integrated Diseases Surveillance Programme (IDSP). State Surveillance Division was expected to return with the results of the test by tomorrow.
On the other hand, PHE officials have also collected samples from the reservoir supplying drinking water to Chhoon village. Officials at PHE Division Budgam told Early Times that a departmental laboratory would return with the test results tomorrow. “If the water is found as contaminated, necessary action will be taken against the staff, including the JE and the AEE concerned”, a senior PHE official in Chief Engineer’s office said. He said it was being investigated thoroughly if organic and inorganic pollutants, including bacteria and insecticides, had contaminated the water as the residents were alleging that rates and cats had died in the reservoir. |
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