A patient is treated for suspected cholera in a hospital in Kakiriguma village of Koraput district, some 500 kilometres from Orissa's capital, Bhubaneswar on September 12.

The death toll from an outbreak of cholera and other water-borne diseases in eastern India stood at 197, with thousands of people still being treated, officials said. Most of the deaths have been reported in three districts

Photograph: Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty Images