A Hepatitis Has Been Discovered in Aspindza

"There are worms and creeps in the water", Aspindza residents complain. Nearly forty pupils have been infected with Hepatitis in Aspindza district. Children's parents say the reason for the infection is water, which has worms in it. Dirty water is not a strange thing in the district. People are unprotected in this field. Thirty-four children have A Hepatitis according to the Aspindza District lab. However, they said it is not official data. Laboratory assistant Tsiuri Chkhikvadze said that the situation is alarming in the district: "Twenty cases of infection were discovered in Aspindza and in the village of Idumala during two weeks. Mostly children are infected. So, schools should be closed for a while. I think dirty water is the reason of the problem," said Tsiuri Chkhikvadze. Sister and brother Lekishvilis, Kristine and Vasili have been estimated to have A Hepatitis and they are medically treated at home. "When my eyes got too yellow my mother noticed it and they made analysis which showed that my brother and I had the infection," said Kristine Lekishvili who is in the seventh grade. The mother thinks that water infected her children. "Initially I noticed the symptoms on my daughter; she has not infected her brother because incubation period is two weeks. Hepatitis is very much spread in the villages. It is caused by dirty water. They cleaned the water with chlorine but it is not enough," said Manana Metreveli. Aspindza district Governor Besik Sandodze denies the fact of spreading infection through the water. "Aspindza gets water from Oti water system. Oshora drinking water pipeline supplies villages of Oshora, Idumala and Daba. A Hepatitis was discovered in Oshora and suspicion was cast on drinking water immediately. We have tested the water and it excluded the possibility that water could infect anyone." "Though the filter is out of order and water is dirty, it cannot do any harm to the health," deputy governor argued.   
 
Local people do not agree him. "We have had similar problem for a long time in the district. I will show the water in the bucket and you will see debris on the bottom. It is doubtless that dirty water causes illnesses. And we already have proofs, children are ill," said sixty-eight-year old Jemal Londaridze. "I filter drinking water in the cheese-cloth three times and then boil it to drink. We used to buy water but then we could not afford it any more. I can insist that hepatitis was caused by dirty water," said Lela Rizhamadze. "I cannot find any way out. If it were a new problem, I would hope that somebody would assist us. But we have had the problem several years. It has smell and worms in it. Now our children are poisoned, what can we do?" Tamar Tsinadze can not see any hope.

Gulo Kokhodze, Aspindza