Koraput gears up to contain monsoon diseases

Koraput district administration in Odisha has geared up to contain waterborne diseases like diarrhoea and cholera, prevalent in the district during the rainy season.
"As waterborne diseases are frequent in the district during monsoon owing to profusion of streams and difficult terrain, this year we have taken several precautionary measures to keep Koraput free from diseases like diarrhoea or cholera," said Koraput district Collector Yamini Sarangi.
According to the collector, a massive awareness drive against the disease has been launched in the district, as every year scores of people succumb to diarrhoea and cholera in the district during monsoon.
As a part of their preparedness against diarrhoea, around 100 Diarrhoea Monitoring Units (DMUs) comprising health staffs have been constituted across the district to monitor the situation, Sarangi said adding the units are supplied with sufficient quantities of anti-diarrhoea drugs and are equipped with other medicines to treat patients.

While health awareness camps are being organised in the rural areas, posters, banners and leaflets are being distributed across the district, highlighting precautionary measures to prevent the disease.
Besides, local artists groups have been roped into stage street plays to disseminate information against the spread, prevention and treatment of waterborne diseases. Though water bodies in the district have been purified, rural folk have still been cautioned against consuming polluted stream water and stale food.

"At least 160 rural habitats have been identified in the district which face non-availability of safe drinking water. In those areas, halogen tablets have been supplied among the villagers to purify the water and they have been asked to consume boiled water. Our awareness drive against waterborne diseases will continue till August end," the Collector said.

"While diarrohea prone areas have been identified, a network of officials comprising field staff of the health department will be responsible for scanning respective areas under their supervision for probable cases of diarhhoea and cholera, pass the information to higher authorities and will help in disseminating relief measures," she added.
Officials said the diseases generally spreads in the end of July and the month of August when the frequency of diarrhoea cases increase and chances of it turning into an epidemic is very high.