Shimla, February 16
Rohru town wears a deserted look with hardly any activity on the otherwise busy streets although no fresh case of suspected pneumonic plague was reported except admission of a woman, Jolawati (60), to hospital last night with fever.
Jolawati is the first such patient to have come to the hospital from Sari village which is just near Gallu where two persons have died of the disease. She was, however, discharged from the hospital today, but scare existed among residents of the town.
The main bus stand and the hospital road in particular have been deserted for the past two days as people preferred to remain indoors out of fear of contracting the fatal disease which has claimed three lives. Those who ventured out of their houses used masks or covered their noses with handkerchiefs.
Reports said even private bus operators were not stopping their vehicles near the villages which were hit by the disease.
Jeeps of the Health Department, fitted with loudspeakers, were going around asking the people to remain indoors as this was the best method of preventing the disease from spreading further. Such messages were also being beamed on the local cable TV.
The Deputy Commissioner, Mr P.C. Katoch, has ordered further closure of all educational institutions in Jubbal till February 20. These institutions were earlier closed till today.
It is learnt that further tests of a patient here have indicated positive signs of pneumonic plague, but no one was willing to come on record.
However, her condition was stated to be improving. The condition of three patients admitted to various hospitals was described as unstable.
A team of doctors of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) has put mouse traps at Gallu village to examine whether rats were carrying bacteria of plague.
The Health authorities are taking no chance and have traced the relatives and friends of the deceased to disinfect their houses in the villages of Kotgarh, Kotkhai and Loga. These people had either participated in their cremation or attended them in the hospital. The Director-General of Central Health Services has dispatched masks, gloves, antibiotics and disinfectants here from Safdarjang Hospital. He is also in
constant touch with the state government.
The Ayurveda Department has cancelled the leave of all doctors and pharmacists in Shimla district and they have been ordered to remain in touch with allopathic doctors to fight the plague, the district ayurvedic officer said.
The Health Minister, Mr J.P. Nadda, said even the vehicles in which the patients were carried to the hospital have been fumigated.
Mr Nadda reviewed the situation with the Health Secretary, Mr Vineet Chaudhary, and senior doctors. He said nearly 6 lakh capsules of doxycycline, tetracycline and septran had been sent to Rohru, Jubbal and Sarswatinagar till today.
The four patients in the hospital at Rohru are responding to the treatment. Ms Kesermani, who was admitted to the hospital with symptoms of pneumonic plague, has now been shifted to the general ward. Her husband, Bankruram and two others, Ms Damyanti and Hapender are in the isolation ward.
Mr Nadda said no authoritative statement could be made about the nature of the disease until the team of the NICD doctors submitted its report. Until then the disease could not be described as plague.
He said the demand of medicines in the affected areas had come down drastically with only about 40 persons at Rohru and 20 at Jubbal coming forward today against 6,218 yesterday.
He said a team of doctors had been despatched to Banpur village of Uttaranchal where one woman had died. The Uttaranchal government had also been informed about the incident.
Mr Nadda, along with the Horticulture Minister, Mr Narendera Bragta, will visit Rohru, Jubbal, Kotkhai and Sarswatinagar tomorrow.
