Manyam Screens 31k Students for Waterborne Diseases

 Visakhapatnam: The officials of health and other departments concerned are on high alert to prevent outbreak of any waterborne diseases among children boarding in various hostels across the Parvathipuram Manyam district.

“Though hostels elsewhere have not shown any illness, we have conducted screening of all the students in the district which has 107 schools of all formats and having 31,462 students of whom 16,462 are girls and 14,974 are boys,’’ said district collector N. Prabhakar Reddy.

It may be recalled that 184 children studying in Government Tribal Girls Residential School and Ekalaya Model Residential School in Kurupam mandal were found infected with Hepatitis A last week, and many of them were admitted to the King George Hospital and Parvathipuram Manyam District Hospital.

According to district medical and health officer Dr Bhaskara Rao, 118 have been discharged and currently 32 were being treated in King George Hospital and 55 in Manyam district hospital.

“No fresh case has been reported, which we found after conducting blood tests on 600 students of residential school and 335 students of model school,’’ the DMHO told this correspondent.

He said both the schools draw water from a single source and the water samples have been sent to a lab in Hyderabad and the results are awaited.

He said periodic blood tests were being conducted on the students who have been discharged and everything was found normal.

As a precautionary measure, ANMs and mid-level health workers were being sent to these two schools to check for symptoms, the official said.

Minister for tribal welfare Gummidi Sandhya Rani, who recently visited King George Hospital, said a medical team had been stationed at the hostel to monitor the student’s health and an inquiry had been ordered into the incident. He said an action would be taken against those who were found responsible for this infection.