60 kids fall ill in Kanota, water contamination likely cause

Jaipur: Close on the heels of 12 deaths of children with special needs, 60 children fell ill suffering from the same kind of symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea in Kanota area of Jaipur on Wednesday. Contaminated water is suspected as a cause of illness among children in Kanota.
Kanota is around 8-10 kilometres away from Jamdoli where more than 30 children with special needs had fallen ill from April 16 and at least nine of them are still undergoing treatment in J K Lon Hospital.
"It is a cause of worry as children fell ill in Kanota which is quite close to Jamdoli," health minister Rajendra Rathore said, who rushed to J K Lon hospital, where 16 children were brought for treatment from Kanota on Wednesday afternoon.
Rathore visited the hospital and interacted with the parents of ill children. He tried to find out how children fell ill. "Do you eat same wheat flour? Did you people eat same food last night? Do you drink water from same water tank," these were some of the questions Rathore asked to the parents of ill children apart from asking about the quality of treatment they are receiving from the patients.
"Are you getting free treatment here," he asked to one of the parents.
The children, who were brought to the hospital, belonged to 4-14 year age category. After meeting the parents, Rathore said, "We are trying to find out the cause of illness among the children. Water samples have been taken. Also, the health department officials have taken samples of stool and swab."
He said, "We are not ruling out any kind of contamination. Prima facie, it seems that children might have fallen ill due to contamination in food or drinking water."
J K Lon superintendent Dr Ashok Gupta, who accompanied the minister during his visit, informed the minister about the treatment they are providing to the patients. Dr Gupta said, "The children have been admitted to the hospital and they are getting the treatment for vomiting and diarrhoea."
The health department officials had received the information about the illness of the children at 8 pm on Tuesday. "There are people living in the area who work in brick kiln. When we received the information, we constituted two teams to control it," Dr KK Sharma, joint director (Jaipur), health department said.
The doctors in the team admitted seven children in Bassi's community health centre. They referred 16 to JK Lon Hospital and 17 other children got treatment in OPD (ORS and other drugs) in Bassi. While there were 20 others who were provided with the treatment and they were allowed to go home as they had mild symptoms of diarrhoea.
In initial investigation, it was found that the families working in brick kiln, drink water from a water tank, which gets water from boring well. Now, the health department has directed the officials not to allow anyone to take water from the overhead water tank. The government is now supplying water to the people through the water tankers.