Keya Acharya It is

TEZPUR

NEW DELHI: For resident doctors and research and medical students staying in the hostels of the All-India Institute of Medical Science here, "sterilised, clean drinking water' will no longer be a luxury. Having fought to keep viral hepatitis, gastroenteritis and other water-related diseases at bay each summer year after year, the AIIMS hostels are finally being equipped with reverse osmosis water units.

Delhi Mayor Arti Mehra has assured Health Minister Yoganand Shastri of "full cooperation' in preventing and controlling water and vector-borne diseases. Ms. Mehra said on Wednesday that though there had been a noticeable decline in such diseases, a lot was still required to be done.

Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva yesterday instructed his officials to take precautionary measures to prevent a possible outbreak of water

One elderly man died on Saturday while more than 50 others have fallen sick due to a diarrhea outbreak in Fulbariya of Siraha district. One Nar Bahadur Magar, 60, of Chhaghare, Fulbariya-6 of the district died after being taken ill due to a serious bout of diarrhea, Kantipur Daily reported. Jiwach Saha, a local, told the daily that the whole village has been badly affected due to the epidemic that hit the village four days ago.

MUSHALPUR

Speakers at a daylong workshop on Thursday emphasised the need for making the sanitation programme compulsory through out the country for getting relief from various waterborne diseases. At least 80 per cent diseases spread in the country due to lack of proper knowledge about sanitation, they said and urged the authorities concerned to set up sanitary latrines in the rural areas.

With the weather turning hot and humid, like other parts of the province reports of gastroenteritis particularly among children have started to pour in at various city hospitals. Cases pertaining to gastro/diarrhoea reported to various government hospitals across the province increased considerably during May. Reports have also been received pertaining to cholera epidemic in a district as well.

Forty-two people died of diarrhoea in the last one month as the deadly water-borne disease spread alarmingly throughout the country due to hot and humid weather coupled with scarcity of pure drinking water. According to the control room of the directorate general of health services, 87,173 diarrhoea-affected people had been treated in hospitals last month and 42 of them died. At least 110 died of diarr- hoeal diseases and 3,43,922 were affected since January 1 this year.