Bhubaneswar, Dec 20 (IANS): Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has expressed concern over the outbreak of diarrhoea in Rourkela city of Sundargarh district in Odisha and advised the state Government to take the assistance of the central agencies to check the menace.

“I am saddened to hear about the deaths of several persons due to the outbreak of diarrhoea for the last few days in Rourkela city and adjoining areas,” Pradhan on Wednesday posted on his ‘X’ account.

“It is worrisome that hundreds of people have got infected with diarrhoea in Rourkela and the situation has spiraled out of the local administration’s control. By taking the sensitive matter seriously, the state government should take all the necessary steps to provide best medical treatment to the affected persons,” Pradhan added.

He has also written a letter to Union Health Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya in this regard seeking his personal intervention regarding central assistance to Rourkela and other affected areas to control the outbreak of diarrhoea.

Terming the situation alarming, Pradhan said that at least eight people have died while 600 others are undergoing treatment in different hospitals in Rourkela.

Meanwhile, following the instructions of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the state Health Department Secretary Shalini Pandit and other senior officials of the department on Wednesday visited Rourkela to take stock of the situation on the ground.

Pandit said the situation was under control and cases would drop within the next two to three days. Speaking to media persons, Pandit said, “We have already brought the situation under control through water quality improvement, IC checking and food safety checking. The number of serious patients is not increasing. As a preventive measure, ten primary health centres will work 24x 7 from today.”

She said that an adequate number of doctors and paramedical staff have been deployed at the PHCs for the treatment of patients round-the-clock. She informed that epidemiology and microbiology study has been started by the Community Medicine department of Sundargarh Medical College to find out the causes of diarrhoea outbreak.

The teams of SCB medical and hospital, Cuttack and Regional Medical Research Center, Bhubaneswar will also visit Rourkela soon.

The state government sources have so far confirmed 6 deaths due to diarrhoea while unconfirmed sources claimed that around 13 people have died due to the outbreak.

Meanwhile, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation commissioner, Subhankar Mohapatra has reportedly confirmed the detection of vibrio cholerae in 18 cases during the examination of rectal swabs collected from several patients.