The corporate houses have extended help to the district administration of south Orissa’s Rayagada to treat the cholera and diarrhoea affected patients in the district, where the water-borne disease has claimed over 65 lives and affected over 780 persons in the last two months. At least two medical teams of the Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL), a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries, which is setting up a 1.5 million tonne per annum alumina refinery at Rayagada’s Kasipur block and a medical team of JK Paper Mill are working to treat the patients in the district. The corporate houses have provided medicines to the patients.
The disease has spread to 156 villages in four blocks of the tribal dominated district. The consumption of contaminated water is stated as the cause of outbreak of dirrohea in the district. State’s health minister Prasana Acharya and secretary Anu Garg on Tuesday visited some of the affected areas, while over 50 doctors from various hospitals were pressed into service to treat the patients and educate the people on preventive measures.
