Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 2: Around 76 cases of Hepatitis-A have been reported from Poonch town in last 20 to 25 days, thereby ringing alarming bells in the Health Department.
According to official sources, the matter came to light about 15 days back when a large number of patients with complaint of sudden nausea, vomiting, low-grade fever, joint pains and clay-coloured bowl movements started rushing to District Hospital, Poonch.
They said increasing rush of patients with same symptoms in the District Hospital rang alarming bells in the Health Department after which a team of Doctors also rushed to Poonch to collect samples of the water supplied by the PHE Department to the households of the town, as drinking contaminated water is the main reason of this disease.
Sources attributed this epidemic to contaminated water being supplied by the PHE Department in the town. “There are three to four PHE water reservoirs in the Poonch Town, which supply water to the whole town. But water was being supplied to the public without chlorination. Moreover, most of the PHE water supply lines in the town pass through sewerage nallahs, which may be the reason of water contamination”, they added.
CMO Poonch, Dr Mumtaz Bhatti, when contacted, confirmed that about 76 cases of Hepatitis-A from the town have been reported in last 20-25 days. However, there is nothing to worry as no new case have been reported in last few days and only people already affected with the disease are coming for follow up.
As soon as the matter came to our notice, we not only issued advisory for the people but also constituted special teams of health officials which visited door to door in the town to educate the people about the disease, its symptoms and preventive measures. The team also distributed chlorine tablets among the households and advised the public to drink water only after boiling it for at least about 20 minutes.
He said a team from Health officials from Jammu visited the town few days back. They took water samples not only from user end but also from source end, and after testing in the laboratory, the water samples were found contaminated. “The matter has also been taken with the DC, who had issued directives to the PHE department to supply water only after chlorination”, Dr Bhatti added.
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