44 tribal students fall sick in Kendrapada Sevashram

 As many as 44 students of Tikhiri Abashika Sevashram, a tribal welfare residential school in Mahakalapada block, are undergoing treatment at District Headquarters Hospital after they fell sick since Saturday night, said District Welfare Officer (DWO) Charulata Mallick.

According to an assistant teacher of the school Anil Kumar Jena, about 15 students on Saturday morning fell sick with high fever, body aches and vomiting. Soon, he took them to the local PHC for treatment. But in the evening, more students fell sick after the prayer class completed.

Nearly 60 students, including 44 of them critically, were found suffering from fever and vomiting. The school authority informed the matter to the DWO and the district administration and with the help of some local youth, shifted the seriously sick inmates to the District Headquarters Hospital for treatment.

The sick inmates alleged that as many as 117 students from Class 1 to Class 5 are in the residential school. They were asked to sleep on the school veranda at night due to ongoing construction work of the school roof. Consequently, exposure to cold at wintry night caused sickness.

According to one Gobinda Murmu, a Class V student of the school, now undergoing treatment at the hospital, he slept in the school veranda with some of his inmates for the last one week due to room constraint. DWO Mallick admitted the 117 inmates and they were adjusting themselves with the limited rooms available in the school. But he assured of speedy completion roof construction work.

Energy Minister Atunu Sabyasachi Nayak and Kendrapada MLA Sipra Mallick visited the hospital along with newly elected councillors of the township to meet the sick children and also assess the situation, on Sunday. The inmates complained that the hospital authorities were neglecting in treating them. The hospital authority failed to provide them bed sheets and blankets as a result they were exposed to cold further in the hospital even when they were suffering from fever, they alleged. They also brought to the notice of the minister the scarcity of drinking water in the hospital.

When contacted, Nayak said he received complaints from all quarters about the negligence of doctors in providing treatment. “I have directed the CDMO of Kendrapada, Bharat Keshari Sahu, to submit a detailed report to me about the status of the hospital and also I would discuss with the State Health Minister in this regard. Necessary action would be initiated against the errant staff of the hospital,” assured Nayak.

A pediatric doctor of the hospital Ananda Gopal Mohanty said as per the symptoms, all the inmates of the Sevashram are suffering from viral fever and some of them are suffering from vomiting. The blood sample of the sick inmates has been collected for laboratory test to ascertain whether the inmates were reeling under fever or flu.

However, the sick students’ conditions are improving, he informed. Meanwhile, a medico team was sent to the Tikhiri Abasika Sevashram to provide treatment to the other ailing students. Senior officials of the district administration and the Energy Minister have also visited to the Sevashram.