Date:03/06/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/06/03/stories/2005060302090300.htm

Karnataka - Bidar

Gastroenteritis in Solpur village

Staff Correspondent

BIDAR: As many as 45 people, including 15 children, were admitted to hospital after gastroenteritis broke out in Solpur village in Bidar taluk on Thursday. An equal number were treated as outpatients at the primary health centre in Solpur. There were no casualties and the condition of none of the patients is said to be serious.

Doctors suspect contamination of water in the open well and the two borewells in the village to be the reason for the spread of the disease. People use the water from the same source for drinking and washing animals and clothes. A part of the water seeps into the well, increasing the chances of contamination, a doctor said.

People were forced to drink water from these sources after the Solpur Tank, the main source of water for the village, dried up this summer, Sharanappa, a villager, said. He blamed the Government for not making alternative arrangements to supply water. The open well is a farmer's private property. A team of doctors, led by the District Health Officer, Adiveppa, and the District Surgeon, Chandrakant Gudage, is camping at the village.