Diarrhoea outbreak kills 1, infects dozens in remote Thanchi area

People living in three remote neighbourhoods under Thanchi upazila of Bandarban are fighting a diarrheal outbreak.

At least 45 ethnic minority people, including children, have been affected and one died in the water-borne disease since Tuesday, according to local sources.

As the locations mentioned are some 85km away on the river route from the upazila health complex, the patients have resorted to oral saline and other necessary medicines from Bara Madak Bazar.

The disease emerged and spread in the Mro, Aungi Khumi and Naricha neighbourhoods under ward six of the union parishad.

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Muishoithui Marma, chairman of Bara Madak Union Parishad, said that an elderly person died on Friday. “As the Jhiris [waterfalls] have dried up, the locals lost access to potable water. They were forced to drink contaminated water from alternative sources, prompting the diarrheal outbreak.”

Thanchi Upazila Nirbahi Officer Ataul Gani Osmani, when contacted, said that he too had heard about the situation.

“I also came to know of one dying of diarrhoea there. So, we’ve sent a medical team, necessary medicine, saline and 10,000 water purification tablets to the affected areas,” he said. 

Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Md Wahiduzzaman Murad said that at least four diarrhoea patients from the Thanchi Sadar area had been admitted to the upazila health complex in the past week.