Srinagar, Sep 19 : A boy died of hepatitis infection on Friday in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district as the health department deputed teams to the area to prevent the spread of the disease.

Officials said that a 13-year-old boy died while his sibling was hospitalised after contracting Hepatitis in Katrasoo village of Kulgam district.

'Three siblings of a family in Katrasoo village of Kulgam district were infected with Hepatitis. They were first taken to a nearby hospital and later referred to the District Hospital Kulgam.

'Two of them were shifted to the Children's Hospital Bemina, Srinagar. One boy died while a girl is under observation at the Children's Hospital Bemina. The third sibling has recovered,' officials said.

Meanwhile, Showkat Hussain, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Kulgam, said that health teams have been deputed to the area. The CMO said the infection is likely Hepatitis A or E, which spreads through contaminated water and poor sanitation.

'There is no need to panic, everything is under control. We appeal to people to boil water before drinking and maintain proper hand hygiene,' the CMO said.

It must be mentioned that after the recent floods, contaminated water from overflowing streams and rivers is likely to have flown into many drinking water reservoirs and filtration plants, resulting in contamination of the drinking water sources.

Health department officials throughout the Valley have advised people to use sufficiently boiled water for drinking after receiving it from taps, springs, etc.

It is common for contagious diseases to spread after floods in the Valley. Before vaccines were developed for cholera and other water-borne diseases, Kashmir used to suffer hundreds of deaths in the aftermath of floods, especially in low-lying areas, due to unsafe drinking water.

Historical records bear witness to the fact that Kashmiris used to abandon travel and sit in large numbers at the graveyards to mourn the hundreds of dead killed by water-borne epidemics. Thanks to advances in medical science and the presence of primary, secondary and tertiary medical facilities in the Valley, epidemics of water-borne diseases have become nightmares of the past.

Health department teams fan out immediately to areas reporting water-borne illnesses and bring them under control before these could assume epidemic proportions.

/IANS