Indore Diarrhoea Outbreak: 20 new cases detected; 142 patients hospitalised

Indore: In the wake of a widespread diarrhoea outbreak caused by contaminated drinking water in Madhya Pradesh's Indore, health teams detected twenty new patients on Sunday after screening over 9,000 persons. 142 patients remain hospitalised, officials said.

Officials said health teams examined 9,416 individuals from 2,354 households during an ongoing survey in the city's Bhagirathpura area, where six persons have lost their lives due to contaminated water, and identified 20 fresh cases.

According to officials, 398 patients have been admitted to hospitals so far following the outbreak in Bhagirathpura. Of them, 256 patients have been discharged after recovery, news agency PTI reported.

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They said that 142 patients are currently undergoing treatment in hospitals, including 11 admitted to intensive care units (ICUs).

Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Madhav Prasad Haasani said a team from the Kolkata-based National Institute for Research in Bacterial Infections (NIRBI) has arrived in Indore to probe the health crisis, reports PTI.

He said experts from NIRBI, which is affiliated with the Indian Council of Medical Research, are providing technical support to the health department to contain the outbreak.

The administration has confirmed six deaths so far due to the consumption of contaminated water in Bhagirathpura. Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava had said on January 2 that he had information about 10 deaths linked to the outbreak.

However, local residents have claimed that 16 people, including a six-month-old child, have died due to the diarrhoea outbreak.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a nine-year-old girl had passed away, and two others, including a three-month-old baby, remain in critical condition after contracting Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM) — a rare but fatal brain infection caused by “brain-eating amoeba”, Naegleria fowleri. All three cases were reported within days in Kozhikode district, prompting Kerala’s health department to issue a public health alert.

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