Cuttack, March 28: Situation at Jobra is going from bad to worse with over 38 people testing positive for jaundice in the past fortnight. Ten fresh cases were reported late yesterday evening.

"The water samples drawn by the public health department from 22 points have tested negative. We have also sent a few samples for advanced test to the state pathology unit in Bhubaneswar to ascertain the exact type and cause of the jaundice outbreak," said chief district medical officer Prafulla Behera.

Behera said that already five blood samples had been sent for advance tests to the microbiology department at SCB Medical College and Hospital.

On the other hand, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation today launched a crackdown on various roadside eateries, including hotels and those selling various juices, at Jobra.

"Our focus is now to ensure that the water used in making local cold drinks as well as traditional juices has a safe source. We have asked the vendors either to use water from purifiers or from tankers of the public health department," said city health officer P.K. Pradhan.

The residents expressed concern over the callous attitude on part of the district administration officials to augment resources for proper screening of patients through health camps in the area. Today, they gheraoed the chief district medical officer as well as the city health officer of the corporation for non-functioning of the health camp at Jobra.

"It is surprising that the health camp, set up two days ago, was closed without any prior information today. Most patients had to return as no doctor was available till 1pm," said local resident Srimant Das. The authorities needed to ensure that the health camp remained opened round the clock as there had been a spurt in the jaundice positive cases at Jobra, he said.

The chief district medical officer, on the other hand, claimed that the health camp was shut in the morning as focus was being given on door-to-door screening of patients in the affected pockets across the locality.

The public health engineering department has started the process of detecting leakages in the main drinking water supply pipelines in the area. "We have changed over 50 pipelines and steps are being taken to detect possible leakages in the main supply pipelines. So far, no leakage has been detected," said the department's assistant engineer Bhawani Shankar Mohanty.