With hygiene standards improving in several areas, not too many cases have been reported from the trouble spots: Kishanwadi, Sanjaynagar, Tulsiwadi and Bawamanpura. Councillors, too, have been maintaining a low profile on the health front, unlike last year.

According to Deputy Municipal Commissioner (General) I B Peerzada and Epidemic and Immunisation Officer Narendra Gami, the VMC action against cold water-sellers and ice-factories slipping up on the chlorine level had paid off. Of the 50-odd ice factories supervised, 15 were found to be sub-standard and barred from production till the regulation chlorine level was achieved. Cold-water larris, too, were returned only a week after they had been seized for not maintaining hygiene standards.

Though the overall picture is brighter than last year's, gastro-enteritis cases in February and April, 1998, have been more than the comparative periods in 1997. A majority of these cases were reported from Navidharti last month, when a leaking sewage pipe contaminated drinking water. The leaking pipe sent 57 viral hepatitis patients and 103 enteritis patients to the Infectious Diseases Hospital and the Jamnabai Hospital, corporation sources said.

The authorities at Gandhinagar, too, are confident that adequate anti-epidemic steps have been taken. The Health Department's Additional Director (epidemics Control) J C Gandhi told Express Newsline that he had held six meetings with departmental deputy directors and senior civic officials in the past month to discuss the scenario.

Admitting that there had been sporadic eruptions of infectious Hepatitis-E, sunstrokes and gastroenteritis in Mehsana, Dhanduka, Kheda and Kutch, he said, ``After verifying facts, the outbreaks can be attributed to infections in drinking water pipelines and illegal water collection.''

Gandhi said, ``We plan to replicate the awareness drive we have launched via the All India Radio in Kutch in other areas of the State to advise people on the do's and don'ts of summer ailments.''

In Vadodara itself, District Collector A Mukim and the Deputy Regional Director of the health department V M Shah said, there had been no reports of an impending epidemic. `We are going all out to supply clean water to remote areas such as Naswadi and Chhotaudepur, while the health department keeps an eye on rural population'', Mukim said.