Bhubaneswar, Sept 17: Odisha Health Department is on alert after at least eleven persons tested positive, and one more life was lost to scrub typhus on Sunday.
Sources said that the Sundargarh district has reported a total number of 180 Scrub Typhus cases today. Seven new cases of scrub typhus were detected in the district earlier on Saturday. Most of the patients are from Sundargarh Sadar and Balishankara blocks, according to the database prepared by the health department. So far, one patient has succumbed to the disease in the district.
In view of keeping the fatal disease at bay, the Sundargarh health administration is on high alert to contain the infection with frantic measures. The 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.
Worth mentioning, in the Bargarh district, at least six people have succumbed to the Scrub Typhus infection. However, the death was reported from a private nursing home here.
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.
