Sirsa: More than 100 people, mostly children and young adults, have fallen ill with Hepatitis A at Desujodha village in Haryana’s Sirsa district, allegedly after contaminated drinking water was supplied to the area.
Two girls, identified as 21-year-old Prabhjot, daughter of Malkit Singh, and 18-year-old Preet Kaur, daughter of Kuldeep Singh, are in a critical condition and undergoing treatment on ventilators at AIIMS Bathinda and DMC Ludhiana, respectively.
Several others, including Jasmeet Kaur, Harpreet Kaur, Gopi, Manpreet Kaur, Rajkaran and Gurnoor, are undergoing treatment at hospitals in Sirsa, Dabwali, Bathinda, Ludhiana and Rama Mandi.
According to village sarpanch Charanjit Singh and other residents, contaminated water was supplied from the village waterworks after leakage developed in newly laid pipelines.
The residents alleged that work to replace the old water pipelines is underway and the leakage caused contamination of drinking water supplied to the households.
The number of people falling ill increased gradually over the past week.
Medical examinations later indicated that several patients were suffering from Hepatitis A, following which panic spread in the village.
The villagers had staged a protest demanding immediate action to ensure clean drinking water.
The health department has collected samples from 540 people in the village over the past five days. Of these, 216 were found to be suspected cases, while 45 patients have been admitted to hospitals.
Of the 45 admitted patients, two are children aged up to five years, 26 are aged up to 18 years and 17 are up to 60 years old. The patients include 30 men and 15 women.
A district administration team visited Desujodha on Saturday to assess the situation.
The team included public health department executive engineer Vijay Kumar, Dabwali tehsildar Sunil Kumar, chief medical officer (CMO) Pawan Kumar and Dabwali SMO Sudeep Goyal.
The officials assured the villagers that clean drinking water would be supplied, health services would be strengthened and the administration would bear the treatment expenses of the affected patients.
Following the assurance, the villagers ended their protest.
Pawan Kumar said four doctors, along with medical staff, have been deployed in the village and an ambulance has been stationed there.
He said health teams are conducting door-to-door examinations and a special testing camp has been organised for suspected patients.
The CMO said Hepatitis A has been detected among the patients and they are being treated at various hospitals.
Hepatitis A is commonly transmitted through contaminated food or water.
The residents have been advised to boil drinking water before consumption and maintain proper hygiene.
Public health department SDO Vishal Jiyani said the replacement of old drinking water pipelines in the village is in progress, and the work is expected to be completed within 10 days.
Contaminated water is suspected to be the cause of the outbreak and repair work is being carried out wherever pipeline leakage has been detected, he said.
