More than 70 people were hospitalised following an outbreak of diarrhoea in Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas district on Monday evening.
Kamarhati Municipality sources said two diarrhoea patients died but state health department officials said they were yet to ascertain whether the deaths were caused by diarrhoea.
Most of the patients were admitted to the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital. Among the admitted are five children, doctors said.
Following an alert from Swasthya Bhavan, officials of the municipality have launched an awareness drive asking residents to drink only boiled water. The civic body has also distributed water purification tablets to residents.
“A preliminary probe by the health department of the municipality has revealed that most of the patients were from wards 1 to 5, including pockets such as Kamarhati Jute Mill, Mill Approach Road and Bhootbagan. These are among the most densely populated areas of Kamarhati,” said an official of the municipality.
“We have asked residents of these areas not to use the water supplied by the municipality.”
Doctors at Sagore Dutta hospital who are treating diarrhoea patients from Kamarhati said most of them complained of acute pain in the abdomen and were vomiting. The condition of nine patients was critical.
