MAMC girls' hostel grappling with Hepatitis A

As many as 26 girl students living in the hostel of the Maulana Azad Medical College have been struck down by Hepatitis A over the past two-and-a-half months.
Although the official figure as per the college management stands at 26, according to hostel sources, as many as 53 students could have been infected with Hepatitis A, an acute infectious disease of the liver.
Hostel sources said it was the mess food in the girl's hostel which may be to blame for the occurrence of the disease.
While most of the ailing girls have returned to their homes, the occupants of the women's hostel are now using the boy's hostel mess.

"As part of preventive measures, we have chlorinated all the water tanks in the girl's hostel and have also checked the RO filters and water coolers.
"We have also put up notices in the hostel for all girl's to contact the medicine department to get their anti-body titre measured," said Dr Deepak K Tempe, Dean of MAMC.

Experts from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases visited the campus two days back while the community medicine department of MAMC has started spreading awareness amongst hostel residents about food and water hygiene.
The mess, which the girls said was in a pathetic condition, has also been thoroughly sanitised and disinfected, Tempe said.

"Hepatitis A is a water-borne disease caused mainly by food and water. Though vaccination is not recommended as a blanket measure to control the disease, we will start measuring the anti-body titre of the female hostellers to check their defence mechanism.
"They will be vaccinated if their defence mechanism is found to be weak," Dr Tempe added.