MIANWALI: Alleged negligence of district public health department resulted in spread of gastroenteritis among residents of Kaloor village of Isakhel tehsil, landing around 100 of them in hospital and prompting the district administration to declare health emergency.

According to some village residents, who sought anonymity, the water supply pipelines at Kaloor village, (60km from here) had gone rusty and got broken, resulting in mixing of sewage in the potable water.

They said that they repeatedly informed the public health department officials concerned about the alarming situation but nobody heeded to them.

Consequently, people started falling sick, mostly complaining of diarrhea and vomiting.

On Sept 1, they said the situation became alarming and around 100 residents of the village fell so sick that they had to be shifted to the Isakhel Tehsil Headquarters Hospital and the district headquarters hospital (DHQ).

Finally, Deputy Commissioner Dr Nasir Mehmood Bashir took notice and announced emergency at the DHQ and Isakhe THQ hospital, sending teams of doctors to the affected area for treatment of the patients.

District Health Authority CEO Dr Mohammad Khan Malik told Dawn that to handle the gastro emergency, special wards were set up at Isakhel THQ hospital, besides Kaloor and Tarag basic health units for the patients, which were run by teams of doctors sent by the DC.

He said Deputy District Health Officer Dr Zafar Kamal Khan was deputed to monitor the situation round the clock.

He said out of around 100 patients, just three were still admitted at the THQ hospital who were being treated, claiming that all the remaining patients were discharged as they had recovered.

The CEO said sufficient stock of medicines for the gastro treatment was available.

He added that the disease was caused by use of contaminated water and samples of the village water supply had been sent to Institute of Public Health Water Board, Lahore, for analysis.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2019