GUWAHATI, July 26 - Amid the medical emergency, the Japanese Encephalitis has claimed lives of 29 persons across the State. Meanwhile, this year malaria also caused two fatalities so far till July 25.
The statistics, revealed by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), Assam, stated that till July 25, as many as 220 positive malaria cases and 199 Japanese Encephalitis cases have been reported in Assam. Till Saturday, a total of 19 dengue cases were also reported in the State.
But, this year, the situation of vector-borne diseases has improved substantially across the State. The statistics said that last year in the same period, 432 malaria cases, 44 dengue cases and 529 Japanese Encephalitis cases were reported in the State.
Meanwhile, three fatalities due to malaria and 119 fatalities due to Japanese Encephalitis were recorded during this period in 2019.
Notably, the second phase of the Assam Community Surveillance Programme (ACSP) is also under way across the State. The ACSP aims to carry out ground-level surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections, influenza-like illness, fever cases along with vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue, Japanese Encephalitis, etc., and to do testing of all such cases by taking all necessary steps.
Up to July 25, the ACSP-II has covered 29,918 villages and detected 41 cases of severe acute respiratory infections along with 2,072 cases of influenza-like illness.
Health and Family Welfare department commissioner and secretary Monalisa Goswami, while reviewing the status of Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, recently instructed all officials concerned to keep functional all laboratories with adequate Elisa reader and washer.
Goswami also observed that there is a need to strengthen the monitoring and supervision system in the State with rigorous awareness activities, especially in the tea garden areas.
