People Living with Diarrhea

KORAPUT: Bade Muduli in her twenties was screaming with pain in thelabor room of the CHC at Dasmantpur block head quarter just beforeNaveen Patnaik , the Chief Minister of Orissa visited the hospitaltoday . She was alone and no one was there to console her as her solehope , her husband, Bade Muduli was admitted in the other ward forthe last one week for suffering from severe diarrhea . The doctorsattending diarrhea patients in the hospital were seen helpless infinding a place which could be safe and healthy for the new bornchild .None of the safety measures needed to be taken for a new bornchild was not available anywhere in the hospital . The entirehospital was packed with patients .Even the smell of bleaching powder sprayed fresh in and outside thehospital had failed to cover the pungent smell generating from theailing patients . Kamlu Khosla of Dasmantpur village has come backagain today seeking treatment . He had received drips from more than40 saline bottles in a week's time before he was discharged yesterday.But back at home the condition got worse forcing his grandson TunaKhosla to bring him back to the hospital today . Similar is thecondition with Sindei Saunta , the ten year old girl from Chandanputi village who had to be brought back to the hospital again after beingtreated in the hospital .Rama Saunta , an elderly person from Kandhabedapadar was sitting underthe tree in the hospital premises along with many other villagersattending the patients suffering from diarrhea . It was not a goodtime for Rama and other people in his village as three persons haddied on Sunday in his village and he had come with another patient ."There is no work, food or good source of drinking water for us inthe village" he said .Naveen Patnaik talked to the patients , doctors and the officials fromthe district administration. He was told by the doctors that 2200people were affected in the 61 villages from 15 GPs in the block outof which 52 patients had died of diarrhea in the last 3 months with32 patients dying in August alone. However in contrary to theofficial figures Taraprasad Bahinipati carrying a list of dead persons claimed that there were 122 deaths in the block and the situation wasworsening every other moment . With more than 80% of the tube wells in the block being defunct people were forced to drink contaminatedwater from the streams . Adding to this lack of work in the villagesthere was acute shortage of food with the people leading to theconsumption of non consumable leafs and bulbs . Without bringing anintegral solution to these factors no single effort will be futile ,he argued . Rabinarayan Nanda , MLA of Jeypore and Jayaram Pangi, MLAof Pottangi also shared their observation .After listening to them and interacting with the patients the CMannounced that compensation will be paid to the families of the dead ,work opportunities will be created under NREGA in every village andefforts would be geared up to fill all the vacancies in the district .He also directed the officials to make sure that medicines reached thepatients and the source of drinking water in the villages getdisinfected with immediate effect .Even though he did not visit any village in Dasamantpur block he hadbeen to Talajhari village near Kasipur block in Rayagada district and urged the people there to drink boiled water and have cooked foodin their meal . Before leaving for the state capital he had expressedhis satisfaction that things were being brought under control in boththe diarrhea affected blocks . Duryadhona Majhi , the health ministeralso had accompanied him .(EOM)