CHANDIGARH: Seven children have died due to diarrhoea and a mysterious disease in the twin villages of Chilli and Chhilla of Hathin sub-division of Palwal district in the past 14 days.
The outbreak was first reported on September 1 when villagers started rushing their children to primary health centre (PHC) at Hathin.
Kids who have died included Aksha (5 months old), Sanjum (6 years), Farhaan (7 years), Saqib (6 years), Tarannum (28 days) and Aaksha (8 years).
According to health officials, two kids died of a mysterious disease and their swabs have been sent for further examination. The rest died due to diarrhoea and fever, officials added.
Meanwhile, the health department has ruled out Covid infection after samples of 114 children, including those who died, tested negative. Around 250 children were tested for malaria and 12 were tested for dengue as well.
“Situation is very much under control. Our teams of medicos, headed by a senior medical officer (SMO), are camping in PHC as well as in the villages for monitoring, diagnosis and treatment. As of now, nobody has tested positive for Covid-19,” said ACS health, Haryana, Rajiv Arora.
The teams of district administration, health department and public health engineering department are trying to ascertain the cause of water contamination and are plugging the same, he added. Arora said teams are camping in the villages since September 9.
The health authorities have deployed teams of integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP) and public health engineering department to contain the disease. Four children have been referred to Palwal civil hospital while around 68 have been treated at primary health centre of Hathin.
