Cholera threat forces BMC to set up camps in S Mumbai

Three cases of suspected cholera from Mazgaon, Masjid Bunder and Mumbadevi have prompted BMC to set up camps and screen people in these areas.

Though civic officials claimed there were no fresh cholera cases, general physicians from the Cuffe Parade area continued to treat patients.

Two camps at Cuffe Parade were set up but few people turned up. Dr Daksha Shah, the head of BMC’s epidemiology cell, said the three cases transferred on Wednesday were sporadic. “There is no cause for worry. The areas have been screened,” she said. BMC conducted two camps at Ambedkar Nagar slum in Cuffe Parade. “We found two or three people with complaints of vomiting and loose motions.” And these people were treated on the spot and given ORS sachets and chlorine tablets.

Shah said there were no fresh admissions in civic hospitals on Wednesday. “We are waiting for the culture reports of the three patients because it is the only conclusive test for cholera,” she said.

Local physicians, however, said they were treating several people every day. “I have personally got 10 of my patients admitted to St George Hospital. And all were in critical condition,” Dr Anil Shah, a general physician in the Cuffe Parade area, said. “All of them were extremely dehydrated and had to be taken in ambulances.”

Besides cholera, monsoon deaths too have gone up. Two people died of fever and malaria in the past 24 hours. At leat 199 people were admitted to various civic hospitals for fever, 142 for gastroenteritis, four for suspected leptospirosis, two for suspected dengue and 71 for malaria.