Bhubaneswar: Eleven persons have tested positive to scrub typhus in Odisha’s Sundargarh district taking the total number of cases to 180 on Sunday. Seven new cases of scrub typhus were detected in the district on Saturday.
Significantly, most of the patients are from Sundargarh Sadar and Balishankara blocks. So far, one patient has succumbed to the disease in the district.
Sundargarh CDMO has assured there is ample stock of medicines for the patients and a special team of doctors has been pressed into service to attend to the scrub virus patients in the district. At the same time, a sensitisation programme was organised in Sundargarh district for doctors on Friday with a view to checking the disease.
In Bargarh, six people have succumbed to scrub typhus infection. The death was reported from a private nursing home in Bargarh district.
With the latest death, the total number of deaths due to the disease reached six in the district. The Bargarh district administration has set up a fact-finding team comprising Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR) in Burla. So far, 22 cases of scrub typhus have been reported in the VIMSAR.
The three-member medical team comprises assistant professor Dr. Shankar Ramchandani, assistant professor and microbiologist Dr. Satyabrat Thakur, and assistant professor of community medicine Dr. Udaya Kumar Nayak. After reaching Bargarh and before going to the field for investigation, the team held discussions with the district chief medical officer (CDMO) Jitendra Mohan Bebarta.
It is worth mentioning here that scrub typhus spreads through bites of infected chiggers (larval mites). The mites come in contact with humans in farmland, forests, and village ponds. It is a vector-borne disease and is usually reported in the rainy season during November-July. The common symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, body aches, and a black, inflamed mark on the skin.
