Shimla, February 15
The leave of government doctors in the Shimla district has been cancelled by the authorities in view of incidents of the pneumonic plague in Shimla, Rohru and the neighbouring Uttaranchal which have claimed 3 lives.

This has been done to keep the doctors available for meeting any eventuality at the district headquarters and in the interior areas.

Reports said that of the five patients suspected to be suffering from pneumonic plague in the hospital at Rohru, condition of one Banku Lal was causing concern as he was not responding to the treatment. No new case of the disease came to the hospital today.

Not taking any chance, a team of doctors from Himachal Pradesh has been rushed to the Banpur village of Uttaranchal where one woman died yesterday. Her relatives, who remained with her when she had contracted the disease, were also being given treatment. The residents of Banpur have contact with people at Rohru which was the nearest town for them.

Panicked by the death of patients, a large number of people thronged the hospitals at Jubbal and Rohru to procure antibiotic capsules which prevent the disease which was highly communicable. Similar was the position at the state capital here as doctors in the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and the Deendayal Upadhaya Hospital (DDUH) were receiving series of telephone calls from people seeking guidance for preventing the disease.

The sale of Doxycycline, Tetracycline and masks has increased suddenly here.The state government today procured 2 lakh capsules of these medicines and rushed these to the affected areas with orders to provide these to the people on demand. One lakh capsules were dispatched there earlier. Reports said that government officials working at Rohru and Jubbal have sent requisition to the local hospitals for these capsules.

House-to-house distribution of these medicines has been started at Sarswatinagar as a precautionary measure.

An isolation room was prepared on war footing in the DDUH this afternoon to meet any eventuality. A separate control room has also been established in the hospital to flash information regarding any suspected case of the disease.

A team of three doctors of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases(NICD) visited the IGMC here this morning before leaving for Rohru and examined the results of the sputum of Ms Asha Devi which had indicated “yersinia pestis” which was a positive sign of pneumonic plague. Her another test is also reported to have shown positive signs of the disease.

However, the team members were tight lipped and did not say anything about prevelance of the disease. They said that it could take even six months to reach a final conclusion. They faxed their report to the Director of the NICD at Delhi.

Meanwhile, amidst reports of financial distress of attendants of patients sent to the PGI,Chandigarh, the State Government has ordered the Deputy Commissioner, Solan, to provide on the spot cash assistance to such people.

The Himachal Health Minister, Mr J.P. Nadda, reviewed the position and said that over 1.70 lakh capsules had so far been distributed in the affected areas.