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Diarrhoea death toll now 200 in southern districts

From Our Correspondent
BARISAL, Apr 18: Diarrhoea has so far claimed more than 200 lives and attacked 9,000 most of whom are children, women and old agars in six southern districts of Barisal. Bhola. Patuakhall, Jhalokathl. Plrojpur and Borguna.
It is learnt that diarrhoea has not yet been controlled though he official sources claim that It Is under control. The disease Is still spreading fast and griping new areas of these districts.
According . to different sources. the persisting drought Is aggravating the situation that is damaging standing crops and lowering sub-soil water level. Chicken pox and measles are also spreading in some areas of the districts.
Lack of co-ordination among the control rooms in districts and upazilas has been creating confusion regarding the death figure and number of attacked people. When contacted. the control rooms of Patuakhall and Borguna districts could not gtve the actual figures of death and affected persons.
In this alarming situation, the only consolation Is that the Health Department officials more or less Is supplying ORS and saline in some of the affected areas It Is informed that a huge quantity of ORS and saline are being sold In blackmarkets In affected areas of the districts.
Till today, some areas like Baufal and Dashmina upazilas of Patuakhall and BakerganJ and MehendtganJ Including Uzlrpur upazilas of Barisal are said to be the worst affected areas It Is informed that 48 people died of diarrhoea but the official sources confirmed only 16 deaths.
In Jhalokathl and Plrojpur districts, diarrhoea is spread Ing gradually. According to focal sources, scarcity of pure drinking water as well as drought are aggravating the situation.
In Barisal. co-ordination among district control room. Medical college and other hospital authorities are vet to be regularised. The death and affected figures are still confusing. The causes of the outbreak of diarrhoea are yet Io be detected by the concerned authorities. It Is Informed that It could not be done In the laboratory of the Sher-E-Bangla Hospital, Barisal.
The ICDDR.B has already set up a 20-bed modern field hospital at BakerganJ upazila In Barisal Dr Zaman, the special 1st of the centre has already started collection of Swab' of diarrhoea patients of the af fected areas which will be sent to Dhaka for test. In all four doctors have been working at the field hospital of the centre.
Dr Nazrul Islam. Civil Surgeon. Barisal informed that the people of these areas tak Ing polluted water of the canals and ponds without knowing the affect. In some areas, pure drinking water is not available as most of the hand tubewells have become Inoperative due to drought.
According to official sources. 168 persons died of diarrhoea and 8.620 persons were attacked by the disease till April 15 In six southern districts of the country
The district-wise break up of the death and affected fig ures arc: Barisal 74 dead arid 4,204 attacked, Patuakhall-43 and 1,282, Bhola 32 and 1.386. PlroJpur-7 and 283 Jhalokathl-8 and 876 and Borguna-4 and 589.
The Health Department has act up 20 diarrhoea control camps in BakerganJ. 6 tn MehendtganJ. 4 in sadar upazila of the district. Besides. 96 medical teams are working In Barisal where 69 doctors are available
Meanwhile, Dr M A T Siddlque. Director General. Health Directorate visited the worst affected areas of Barisal Patuakhall and Bhola