Amid swine flu scare, the death of three children in different parts of Nainital due to diseases like diarrhoea and jaundice seems to have caught the Nainital district administration unaware. While two children died due to diarrhoea in Nainital’s Bagar area, one child is said to have died due to jaundice in lalkuan area of this district. The fact of the matter is that during this transitional phase of weather, vector and water-borne diseases increase in Nainital.
It is pertinent to mention here that a child also died due to diarrhoea in Ninital’s Okhalkanda block’s Aghora village in last May, but Nainital district administration then woke up to this health problem only after the demise of the child in Okhalkanda block’s Aghora village last summer.
The district administration seems to have not learnt any lesson from the past this time too. However, expressing concern over death of three children, Deepak Rawat, District Magistrate, Nainital, has asked the officials concerned of the district health department to take necessary measures to contain these diseases.
He has also asked the officials concerned to check the water quality of the affected areas and maintain cleanliness in these places.
Whereas the Bagar area is one of the parts of the Nainital district which have poor access health services, being a remote and hilly area, unhygienic conditions caused by poor state of basic services only give rise to vector and water borne diseases in lalkuan area.
However, given the possibility of cases of diarrhoea and jaundice due to changing weather conditions, the officials concerned have emphasised on the need to take necessary steps in all sensitive areas in the coming summer season.
At the same time, now the district administration, Nainital has also directed the officials concerned of the district health department to ensure adequate arrangements of medicines so that better health services could be maintained in the district.
Besides, the Nainital district administration has also directed the civic bodies across the district to launch cleanliness drive in their respective areas in view of the transitional period giving rise to vector and water borne diseases.
Meanwhile, the doctors and health experts have also advised the common people to avoid eating cut fruits and food in open places. Besides, the health experts have also urged the citizens not to eat stale food during the summer season.