The Government General Hospital (GGH) at Guntur witnessed the death of three more patients in a single day on Thursday, as they succumbed to acute diarrhoea. With this, the death toll in Andhra Pradesh has increased to 15.
The patients were reported to have been admitted around 10 days ago, and doctors said that they were in the age group of 55 to 65 years.
According to reports, around 400 cases have been reported from private hospitals across Guntur, while about 30 to 40 patients are still undergoing treatment at GGH. 10 other patients in the state-run hospital are said to be critical.
Jana Sena party chief Pawan Kalyan visited the hospital on Friday, and met with the patients who were being treated. He also met the families of the deceased.
Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana, Social Welfare Minister N Anand Babu and Civil Supplies Minister Prathipadu Pulla Rao visited the GGH on Thursday and met with the kin of the deceased. They also handed out cheques for Rs 5 lakh as compensation.
This outbreak comes despite the Guntur Municipal Corporation’s (GMC) efforts to check the spread of diarrhoea.
Following the deaths, activists from the YSR Congress Party, CPM, CPI, and Congress staged a protest in front of the GMC office, and accused the municipal body of ‘failing’ to check the spread of the outbreak.
They also demanded that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu must visit Guntur to check the prevailing condition.
Some locals alleged that repeated complaints fell on deaf ears, as the GMC initially claiming 'food poisoning' as the reason for the outbreak.
Last week, the GMC’s own findings revealed that 225 water pipelines pass through drains at areas like Anandpet and old Guntur, where E. coli bacteria was present in the water samples.
Facing flak in the Assembly, Minister P Narayana said that the state government had taken several steps to curb the spread of the condition, including supplying 100 MLD of drinking water to Guntur city.
Stating that water samples from several households were thoroughly checked, and extra ambulances had been deployed where such cases were being reported, the Minister also said that door-to-door campaigns were being conducted.
Meanwhile, GMC authorities on Thursday said that they had repaired the water tank at BR Stadium, and they were drawing drinking water from Krishna river at Prakasam barrage and shifting it to GMC reservoirs, before supplying it to the town.
However, they warned that the outbreak was still prevalent in parts of II Town.