Koraput: With around 30 jaundice cases being reported here in the past one week, the district administration sent blood samples of 14 affected persons for laboratory tests on Wednesday.Official sources said the blood samples have been sent to Manipal Centre of Viral Research, Manipal, to identify the reason behind the outbreak. There are several reasons due to which a person gets affected by jaundice and to know the exact reason more advanced tests are required. Hence, the blood samples have been sent to Manipal, said Arun Padhi, additional district medical officer, public health.Also, the district’s health department has started collecting water samples from various vulnerable areas, particularly hotels, vendors, and where leakages have been found in the drinking water pipelines laid by the public health and engineering organisation, for laboratory tests.“We have collected at least 10 water samples from the town to examine the presence of any germ, which could have lead to the outbreak of waterborne diseases,” said Padhi. At present, the situation is under control and no germs have been found in any of the water sample tested in the laboratory, he added.The chances of spread of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and jaundice are very high if the people consume unhygienic water. According to the officer, the field staff of the health department have been directed to keep a tight vigil across the district and to make people aware of the the required precautionary measures to be taken to prevent the outbreak of any waterborne disease.People are being asked to drink boiled water, only to use water from the tubewell and supplied by the PHEO and not to use water from wells. Adequate quantity of halogen tablets have been supplied to the field staff to chlorinate various water sources in rural areas, he said.The health department has also urged the people to contact the health staff in their respective areas to carry out chlorination of water bodies to ensure that they get safe drinking water.

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