**Malkangiri: ** With the death toll of kids touching 56 due to JE and the various measures taken by the government authorities and the medical fraternity here failing to stop this menace, many parents have lost faith in the existing system of treatment and are now again resorting to the dangerous traditional methods of healing.
The Koya couple from Katangpali village under Podia block of Malkangiri district, Sama and Gopi Madkami have already lost two of their daughters, Rebika Madkami(7) and Jayanti(4) to this deadly disease while undergoing treatment in the ICU of Malkangiri DHH on Thursday and Friday. Their elder son had succumbed to this disease last year.
“Now I fear for my youngest daughter’s life. Doctors and their medicines were unable to save my both daughters life. I have lost faith in the medical system here and will take my daughter to a hospital in Khamam, Andhra Pradesh,”said Sama, the father.
Notably, the youngest daughter got infected to this disease and the parents had rushed her to the nearby health care centre.
“His daughter was recovering and was stable. But she had some convulsions on Saturday morning. He insisted to go to Khamam. We all requested him to stay back and continue with the treatment. We had tried to convince him to take the child to SCB, Cuttack but all in vain. I had even taken the help of police, and went behind him till the bus, but couldn’t convince him,” informed Sangram Satpathy, a doctor at MV 79.
On the other hand, one-year-old Shankar Kabasi has been suffering from fever for the last three days, the family members are in no mood to go to the nearby hospital.
“I had taken my 2-year-old daughter to the hospital when she was ill, but the doctor discharged her after a few days. Now, she has again contracted fever. I don’t want to go back to the government hospital. Children keep on dying there. It is beeter to go to the village quack and resort ot traditional healing procedures,”observed Kamala Kabachi.
Similarly, 5-year-old Adma Badse stayed in the nearby health care centre for 7 days and got discharged by the doctors. But he has retracted fever after a gap of 3 days. His father, Manga Kabasi do not want to go back to DHH, rather resort ot traditional healers (disari).
“The situation is totally under control now. Since last 2 days, no casualties are being reported. The four children critically ill have been recovering. There are only 15 patients in the hospital ward now. If we go by statistics, 115 have been discharged, out of 184 who had been admitted here. It is unfortunate that 54 children became victim to this deadly disease as they had come to the hospital at a late stage,” according to Ajit Mishra, Additional Director, Health Department.
“Villagers resorting to traditional method of healing have decreased considerably. The villagers who do not come to the DHH have their initial treatment at the local Health Centre,” he added.
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