Anantnag village witnesses jaundice outbreak

Anantnag, Sep 21: On Wednesday, Insha Nisar, a 6 year old girl from Aar Dehruna village of south Kashmir's Anantnag district was admitted in Children hospital Anantnag after she did not show a significant improvement at the local hospital.

With yellowish skin the girl was diagnosed with jaundice. After being treated there she showed signs of improvement. “ Now she is responding well to the treatment,” said her father Nisar Ahmad. Ahmad’s daughter is not the only child grappling with the jaundice in his village.

Miran Rafiq, a 10 year old boy is also being treated for the same disease at children hospital Anantnag and is improving. There are close to a dozen children diagnosed with the same disease.

“Around eight to 10 children are suffering from jaundice in this village,” said Abdul Rashid, a villager. The village comprising 700 households has witnessed an outbreak of diseases over the last few days, spurring the authorities to send medical teams to the area to take samples.

“Many children are also sick in other areas and are being treated for jaundice,” said Rashid.He said that the entire area was being supplied with unfiltered water directly from the stream, leading to such diseases.

Block Medical Officer (BMO), Verinag Dr Yousuf said that the team had taken serology samples from the area and those were being processed.

A health official said three cases were confirmed positive, five are suspected, and three have recovered.“ The Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDPS) team has also taken the water samples,” he said.

The health official said they have also written to Public Health Engineering Sub division Dooru for providing potable water to the people.

The residents from adjoining Matpora, Manz Dehruna, Gund Aakhura and Darpath villages also said that the areas have suspected cases of jaundice as the water supply supplied to them is from the same source.

A doctor said that unsafe water and poor sanitation were linked to the risk of Hepatitis A infection.

It is not the first time that the district has witnessed the outbreak of the disease. Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE), Jal Shakti Sub division Dooru, Irshad Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that the 90,000 gallon Over Head Tank has already been established and will be dedicated to people soon.

“ The ground water project will cater to 22 villages providing them with potable water,” he said. Ahmad said they were already ensuring all quality control measures at the source where the water is presently tapped.

“ The quality of water gets affected to an extent only when its turbidity increases at times due to adverse weather conditions,” he said.