BHUBANESWAR (India), Aug 25: A cholera outbreak in eastern India has killed at least 58 tribal people and left over 1,800 sick over the past two weeks, health officials said on Saturday, warning it was reaching epidemic proportions.

The outbreak in impoverished Orissa state has been caused by drinking polluted water and eating contaminated meat, they added.

“The situation is not under control, and although we are giving medicines to victims the outbreak is slowly reaching epidemic proportions,” said P. Sitaram, a senior health official in Orissa’s capital, Bhubaneswar.

About 700 people were admitted in local hospitals, and health workers were supplying drinking water and food to thousands of villagers, who were desperate for food in the south-western district of Raygada, officials and witnesses said.—Reuters