Pox and pneumonia claim 20 lives in Nagaland district

KOHIMA, March 1: The communicable diseases that claimed lives of at least 20 children at a border village in Nagaland's remote district had been brought under control, the district administration and Assam Rifles said, reports PTI. The district administration officials told PTI over phone that there were fresh reports of deaths and spread of chicken pox accompanied by pneumonia since last week, but that has been brought under control. The officials said that the diseases had attacked the children since January, but the remoteness of the village aggravated the situation. They said that a team of doctors from the Mon district hospital had visited the village. The nearest hospital at Pomching is about 12 km off Longwa where there is no doctor due to lack of accommodation facilities, the administration admitted. Doctors of the Mon Civil Hospital (district) said that the situation was not "so alarming" as the deaths had been occurring since November and the villagers did not inform the authority in time. The commandant of 13 Assam Rifles, based at Mon, said that he immediately despatched a medical team to the village on January 28 when he was informed of the spread of the diseases. Union Home Minister, L K Advani has assured the Nagaland government of taking up personally the proposed project of establishing a branch of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in the state with the ministry concerned, official sources said. Nagaland Information and Public Relations Minister, Thomas Ngullie raised the matter during Advani's recent two-day maiden visit to the state and got the Union Home Minister's assurance, the sources said. The Home Minister asked the IPR minister to send him details of the proposed project, the sources said. Former Information and broadcasting Minister, P A Sangma had laid the foundation stone of the Institute at Dimapur during the tenure of the Narasimha Rao regime and accordingly state government allotted land for the purpose.