By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi government Wednesday said that there had been no evidence of increase in drug resistance in cholera and other diarrhoea causing bacteria and these continue to remain susceptible to the commonly used antibiotics.
The government has advised Delhi residents to use chlorine tablets in water.
After attending a high-level meeting with experts, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Wednesday reiterated that there was no threat from superbug to residents of the city.
In a statement, the Delhi government said experts were unanimous that there was no clinical and epidemiological evidence to suggest any public health impact of the presence of New Delhi Metallobeta lactamase or NDM1 containing bacteria in environmental samples.
“The experts have assured the chief minister that chlorination being done by Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is sufficient to kill all types of disease causing bacteria, including the NDM1 containing bacteria. Therefore, there should not be any cause of worry/panic on account of the findings of the study,” the statement said.
Top officials of the National Centre for Disease Control, DJB, the Directorate of Health Services of the Delhi government, the Maulana Azad Medical College and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) attended the meeting.
“DJB has been chlorinating the water supply as per the Bureau of Indian Standards in line with the international practices. It has been testing 300-400 water samples per day taken from the consumer end and their results show presence of adequate chlorine and absence of any bacterial contamination. Also, the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) is separately checking samples of water in Delhi. Their findings are in line with those of DJB,” it said.
“In view of the summer season when the diarrhoeal diseases usually increase, the public is advised to use chlorine tablets in case DJB water is not available or alternatively boiled water can be used for drinking purposes. Arrangements have been made for free supply of chlorine tablets in government dispensaries and hospitals. In addition, DJB is supplying chlorine tablets free of cost through its outlets,” the statement said.