MANGALDAI, July 16 - Japanese Encephalitis(JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) have recently taken a serious turn in some parts of Darrang district, particularly in greater Sipajhar area over the last one week as Health Department sources confirmed the deaths of two elderly persons following the deadly diseases.
Bhokobala Deka (80) , a resident of village Borachuba in Sipajhar died in her residence on July 8 last after a blood report dated July 6 confirmed JE positive.
According to an official report, she was admitted to the GMCH on July 5. However, she left hospital on July 7 against medical advice and subsequently died the next day at her residence.
On the other hand, another elderly person Ramesh Chandra Sarma, a resident of Bhuktabari village of Sipajhar was found JE positive on July 9 while being admitted to the GMCH. However, he reportedly died in the hospital on July 12.
Besides these two casualties, official sources confirmed two other patients with JE positive, namely Alhadif Abdullah, a three-year-old child from Hirapara in Mangaldai and Bitopan Rajbongshi (15) of Kholihoi-Kuwarigaon in Sipajhar.
Significantly, both of them had availed Government-supplied JE vaccination in 2015. Fortunately, the condition of both the children are stated to be stable. Kiran Kalita (45) of village Chamatiapara is also stated to have suffered from JE virus as the patient, hailing from a very poor family, has been undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Guwahati following crisis of bed in the ICU of GMCH since the last few days.
However, the District Health Department has yet to declare him as a JE positive case as they are yet to receive the necessary medical report from the competent authority.
�I had visited the residence of Kiran Kalita, but the hospital authority were yet to provide the family members with the 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 times, as stated by DMO Barua.
However, he did not rule out the possibility of a few other unreported cases of JE positive in the district.
Meanwhile, the Health Department has claimed to have carried out camps for blood sample collection (BSC), fogging and awareness meetings in the affected areas as a means of prevention of these diseases even though vaccination is considered to be the best means of prevention.
