5 die of cholera in Dhanera, 200 ill

Five people have died of cholera in the last 3-4 days in Dhanera town of Banaskantha district while nearly 200 others have taken ill with diarrhoea-like symptoms. The district administration, however, says only one person has died of cholera.

The district collector on Wednesday declared Dhanera, a town of around 25,000 people, as cholera-affected.

JB Vora, district collector, Banaskantha, was in Dhanera on Wednesday. He said nearly 200 cases of diarrhoea had been reported in the town over the last 3-4 days.

“Some samples from patients were sent to BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad for testing. As one patient had tested positive for cholera, we have notified Dhanera as a cholera-affected town,” Vora said.

He further said that people should not panic because of the notification as it has been issued as a precaution and to alert people so that they can help prevent the spread of the disease.

“People should not drink tap water without boiling it. There should be no defecation in the open. People should keep their water pots and utensils clean and avoid stale food. We will withdraw the notification once the number of cases comes down,” the collector said.

Minister of state for health, Parbat Patel, had visited the town on Tuesday. He said that it is possible that there was a leakage somewhere in the drinking water pipeline which may have led to dirty water getting into the water pipeline.

“Our teams have gone from house to house in the affected area of the town. Many suspected cholera cases have been sent to civil hospital for treatment,” Patel said.

Talking about the possible reasons for the outbreak of the disease, chief district health officer Dr AH Acharya said that water contamination was the most likely reason.

“But how the water got contaminated is being looked into by teams from Dhanera municipality. Currently, there are 18 indoor patients. The rest were given primary treatment and then under observation for some time. They were then discharged,” Acharya said.