63 new jaundice cases in a day in Shimla - Shimla Now

As politics over jaundice outbreak in Shimla intensifies and cases continue to be detected, state health department has constituted six teams to take 2-3 water samples from the affected areas on a daily basis for testing. On Monday, 63 more positive cases were detected in Shimla.
Congress government led by chief minister Virbhadra Singh has come under attack for its failure to tackle the situation at an early stage. On Monday, the BJP had held a protest demonstration outside the deputy commissioner's office and accused the government of failing to control the spread of disease. On Tuesday, Shimla Nagrik Sabha also sat on dharna outside DC office alleging that the Irrigation and Public Health Department had failed to provide clean drinking water to city residents.
Shimla Nagrik Sabha president Ishwar Verma said that the contractor running the sewerage treatment plant had political patronage due to which he has gone scot-free despite playing with the lives of people by throwing sewerage waste into Ashwani Khad. "State government is doing nothing to stop the spread of jaundice," he added.

State health director Dr D S Gurung said that since January 2, they have been monitoring the situation and making all efforts to control the spread of jaundice. He said that a team headed by the joint director was formed on January 2 itself and based on the recommendation of this team, irrigation and public health department had stopped water supply from Ashwani Khad to affected areas.

Gurung said six teams have been constituted under Shimla chief medical officer. These would be collecting 2-3 samples of water from affected areas daily for testing at microbiology laboratory of Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital. He said 45,000 chlorine tablets have already been distributed while 2 lakh more would be distributed.

Source:TNN