An Epidemiological Study of Hepatitis Outbreak in Cuttack City, Odisha

Abstract

Hepatitis is a highly infectious disease caused by a number of viruses. A study was undertaken in a ward of Cuttack City, where suddenly a number of cases of Jaundice reported. A team from the departments of Community Medicine visited the ward and collected the data by door to door survey. A total of 281 houses were surveyed and data was obtained. There were a total number of 55 jaundice cases. The cases reported with symptoms of fever, anorexia, yellow sclera and yellow urine. 64.3% of cases used Municipality source of water. 7.3% used the water for drinking purpose after boiling and filtration. 28% of houses did not have sanitary latrine, 85.5% from all the jaundice cases used the water for drinking purposes. The young adults were mostly affected. The cause of jaundice could be due to contamination of water supply by Municipality because of leakage and the causative agent was Hepatitis E Virus.

Contested Reproduction and Cultural Change: The Case of Odisha

“…Writers like Fakir Mohan Senapati (1902 [2006]) and Kanhu Charan Mohanty (1955) described infertile identities in a ‘spoiled fashion’ for the first time in Odia society through their novels that not being fertile was socially unacceptable and a completing female gender role (emphasis added). Damayanti, a 35-year-old woman from a lower-middle class stratum said: … there was no family pressure as such after six years of my marriage, yet I feel the guilt for not being able to conceive because it’s very difficult to defend the position before others while saying the choice is to remain childfree.…”