NEWS

The Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad on Friday considered several raids across the city and recovered huge quantities of used syringes and other medical wastes, suspected to be the reason behind the recent Hepatitis B outbreak.

District health officials and police raided various go-downs of scrap dealers. Five go-downs were sealed from where a large quantity of used syringes, needles and bio-medical wastes were found.

According to health officials, the scrap dealers used to purchase used syringes and biomedical wastes from doctors in hepatitis-hit Modasa town.

"When the drugs department raided various warehouses in Modasa, a suspected person told us that they used to collect medical wastes from the doctors and they used to distribute it in Ahmedabad," said Chetan Khurana, Sub Inspector, Asarva Police Station.

The dealers were booked on Wednesday night by Gujarat police.

Modasa, and some other adjoining areas are battling the Hepatitis-B epidemic. The recent exposure of the deadly syringe racket that first hoards medical waste and then sells-seems to be the reason behind the quick spreading of the disease in the state.