Hamirpur: To investigate the reasons behind the diarrhoea outbreak in the Tauni Devi area of the state's Hamirpur district, the Himachal Pradesh government has constituted a team of health experts, officials said on Wednesday. The decision to do so was taken after over 290 people were found to be suffering from diarrhoea and dysentery in 27 villages of the Tauni Devi area. 

Of these, 186 people have been cured while four remain under treatment, Chief Medical Officer Hamirpur Dr RK Agnihotri was quoted by PTI as saying. 

As many as 26 health department teams have been sent to the 27 affected villages to ascertain the situation and distribute medicines. The number of cases mentioned above is tentative and continues to rise. 

In response to this situation, the government has formed a five-member rapid response team comprised of Health Department Deputy Director Dr Yashwant Ranta, Dr Kiran Mokta and Dr Anurag from the Department of Microbiology and Medicine from the Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital (IGMCH) Shimla, a local doctor and lab technician Parikshit from the microbiology department of Hamirpur Medical College.

The team members interacted with the Tauni Devi Civil Hospital patients and collected water samples from the affected areas.

The district health department team has also sent stool samples of the patients from affected areas to the Medical College, Tanda, for testing and the report of these samples will reveal what is the cause of the disease.

Most of the patients are from Gwaradu, Lohakhar, Tauni Devi, Chahad, Tapre, Bari, Mahade, Ghalot, Siswa, Barin, Khandehra, Ladayoh and Jhanikkar villages, the officials said.

A spokesman of the Jal Shakti department said that so far no adverse report of their water had come. Despite this, the department was busy chlorinating the water sources and also taking samples from other areas.

It is the third time that a diarrhoea outbreak has been witnessed in the Hamirpur district in the past 14 months of the Congress rule. In January 2023, about 1,000 people were affected by diarrhoea in Rangas area of Nadaun, the home assembly constituency of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Diarrhoea again spread for the second time in ten panchayats adjoining Hamirpur town in June 2023.