50 down with cholera in Gurdaspur village

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, October 25

Six government and private schools were directed to be closed after a cholera outbreak in Bhattian village, 18 km from here near Kahunwan, affected over 50 persons during the past week.

One person, Raseed Masih (75), died on Wednesday. Deputy Commissioner Vipul Ujwal, after visiting the affected areas, including Christian Mohalla, on Thursday asked the Gurdaspur Civil Hospital authorities to set up a special ward. The DC ordered the Health Department to permanently station an ambulance in the village following a request by the villagers, who were finding it difficult to take patients to the Civil Hospital.

The adjoining villages of Jagowal Bangar and Chib, too, are in the process of being sanitised.

Teams of the Civil Hospital and the Water Supply and Sanitation Department were deployed at Bhattian. Para-medical staff, too, have been deployed in strength.

The disease broke out on October 20, following which the health authorities went on an overdrive and chlorinated the water tanks of all houses of Bhattian village and its adjoining villages.

DC Ujwal and Civil Surgeon Dr Kishan Kumar pegged the figure of those affected at 58. However, villagers claim that more than 100 patients have already been treated at the Bhattian and Bhaini Mina Khan dispensaries and the Gurdaspur Civil Hospital.