Health News
Diarrhoea epidemic in India's eastern Assam state
Oct 28, 2007, 15:41 GMT
New Delhi - A total of 168 people have died of diarrhoea in four districts of India's eastern Assam state since April and health authorities are now treating the outbreak as an epidemic, news reports said Sunday.
At least 85 people died in Jorhat district and over 6,300 people were affected, Assam's Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was quoted as saying at a press briefing by PTI news agency.
He said the disease had assumed epidemic proportions in 38 tea gardens in the Jorhat and Golaghat districts.
There were 37 deaths and 4,100 cases in Golaghat, followed by 29 in Morigaon and 17 in Dhubri district.
The minister said stern action would be taken against the tea garden authorities who were not following the prescribed norms of supplying clean drinking water to workers, which was the main cause of the disease.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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