Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and diseases with Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) have recently turned serious in some parts of Darrang district particularly in greater Sipajhar area over the last one week as the Health Department sources confirming deaths of two elderly persons due to the diseases.
Eighty-year-old Bhokobala Deka, a resident of Borachuba village in Sipajhar of the district died in her residence on July 8 last after blood report of July 6 last confirmed that she was suffering from JE.
According to an official report, Deka was admitted to Gauhati Medical College & Hospital (GMCH) on July 5, 2018, however, she left the hospital on July 7 following doctors’ advice and subsequently died the next day at her residence.
On the other hand, the blood report of another elderly person, identified as Ramesh Ch Sarma, a resident of Bhuktabari village in Sipajhar of the district, was found JE positive on July 9 last while being admitted to GMCH. However, on July 10, he reportedly died in the hospital.
Besides these two casualties, official sources confirmed two other patients with JE positive namely Alhadif Abdullah, a three-year-old kid from Hirapara, Mangaldai and 15-year-old Bitopan Rajbongshi from Kholihoi-Kuwarigaon, Sipajhar. Significantly both of them have availed Government-supplied JE vaccination in the year 2015.
Fortunately, the conditions of both the children are stated to be stable.
Forty-five-year-old Kiran Kalita, a resident of Chamatiapara village, who has also been stated to have suffered from JE virus. The patient, who belongs to a family of poor financial background, has been undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Guwahati due to crisis of bed in the ICU of GMCH since last few days.
However, the District Health Department is yet to declare it as a JE positive case as they are yet to receive necessary medical report from the competent authority. “I have visited the residence of Kiran Kalita but the hospital authority is yet to provide the family members with requisite medical reports,” said Shyam Barua, District Malaria Officer (DMO) while talking to this correspondent.
In addition to these JE positive cases, there are two detected cases of AES in the district in recent time as stated by DMO Barua. However, he didn’t rule out possibility of few other unreported cases of JE positive in the district. Meanwhile, the Health Department has claimed to have organised camps for Blood Sample Collection (BSC), fogging and awareness meeting in the affected areas as a means of prevention of these diseases even though vaccination is considered to be the best means of prevention.
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