Ranchi, July 28: Two dead, five critical and several hundred others afflicted by diarrhoea, the water-borne disease.

That is the admission by the government, which conceded that the poor man?s disease had spread to several districts and that the situation was grim.

What?s even more alarming is the official admission that the dreaded kala-azar, which has the potential of turning fatal, is raging in Santhal Parganas (See chart).

As many as 863 kala-azar cases have been reported from Dumka district whereas 289 cases have been recorded in Pakur district, the chief minister was told.

However, no death has been reported so far due to kalazar.

The Bihar government was forced to import a life-saving drug from United Kingdom to treat serious cases of kala-azar as the disease developed immunity to locally manufactured drugs. It is not yet known, though, how many critical cases have been reported so far.

The outbreak of diarrhoea is obviously related to unsafe drinking water, stale food and street food.

But the health department appears clueless about how to deal with it.

The chief minister today held a video-conference with deputy commissioners of the affected districts and directed them to send a daily report to the health secretary.

Nobody should die, the chief minister told them, due to non-availability of medicines. He also directed them to intensify efforts to prevent the outbreak and ensure that bleaching powder is put in wells.

The deputy commissioners and civil surgeons, however, claimed that the situation everywhere was under control, although five patients are stated to be critical in Hazaribagh and as many as 363 cases reported from Deoghar alone.

Dhanbad surprisingly reported only 87 diarrhoea cases but over 600 people who tested positive for malaria.

In contrast, the Hazaribagh deputy commissioner denied the existence of a single case of malaria.

While the deputy commissioners claimed the situation to be under control, in some of the districts the deputy commissioners and civil surgeons were found to come up with contradictory statements, raising doubts about the authenticity of these figures.

The state health department has already constituted an epidemic control room.

It was claimed that six senior officials have been deployed at the control-room for round-the-clock monitoring. Civil surgeons have been asked to set up district-level control rooms.

The chief minister spent considerable time inquiring about the steps taken by Deoghar administration to take care of the devotees who are flocking there for the month-long Sharvani Mela. The Deoghar MLA, however, claimed that power, not health, was causing concern.