Diarrhoea outbreak hospitalizes over 100 in Anantnag’s Srigufwara area

ANANTNAG — Over a hundred people from Srigufwara area of southern Kashmir’s Anantnag district were hospitalised after the outbreak of diarrhoea in Trail village, officials said.

Officials told the news agency KNO that a large population including elderly people in Trail village of Srigufwara suffered loose motions and vomiting, following which the health teams were immediately dispatched to the area and all the affected people were admitted to health facilities.

“More than 100 residents were being treated for loose motions and vomiting. Probably unsafe or impure drinking water could be the cause, but test reports are yet to confirm the facts. The Health Department has set up a medical camp in the area,” the officials said.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Anantnag, Syed Fakhruddin Hamid, along with other officials, visited the village today after the outbreak.

Block Medical Officer (BMO), Sallar, Dr Zahoor Ahmad, said that the number of infected people has reached 100, and all are stable. He said the infected people are being treated at three health facilities, and teams of medicos have been deployed in the village.

Dr Zahoor said that an awareness camp has been conducted, and teams from Srinagar have also visited the area. “Water test samples have been taken from eight places, and the results will be available soon. The most affected people are from the young and elderly age groups,” he added.

Locals alleged that the reservoir from which the drinking water is being supplied to the whole area was kept open for a couple of days. They accused the Jal Shakti department of carelessness.

“We demand an investigation into why the water reservoir was kept open for two days. The reservoir is polluted, and there is no cleanliness at the site,” they alleged.

Sareer Wani, Executive Engineer, Jal Shakti Department, Division Bijbehera, said that the reservoir is closed but the filtration point remains open, as it remains in other locations where there is a water supply scheme.

He said the water supply scheme serves water to almost 10 villages, but only a single village was affected by the outbreak due to unknown reasons.

“Samples have been taken by the Jal Shakti Department from nearly 20 places for laboratory testing,” he added.