IMPHAL, Jul 28: The death toll due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in the State has so far reached three while five more positive cases of JE have been detected. One patient is in acute condition at RIMS, said sources.
Health Director Dr O Ibomcha told The Sangai Express that blood samples of 18 people suspected to have been infected by JE were tested today at JNIMS and five samples were found positive thereby taking the total number of positive JE cases to 20.
All the five persons who have been found infected with JE are undergoing treatment at the hospital. They have been vaccinated by the department free of cost and their conditions are stable.
So far, three persons have died due to JE in the State and they belonged to Changamdabi, Bishnupur and Churachandpur. Of the three one passed away in Chandigarh.
The five persons who were confirmed positive for JE today belong to Yaiskul, Kongba, Senapati, Kekrupat and Iroishemba, informed the Health Director.
Apart from organising vaccination campaigns, fogging has been done in all the places where JE cases have been confirmed as well as the surrounding areas.
Informing that he visited Churachandpur district hospital to oversee the situation prevailing there, Dr Ibomcha not a single case was found positive out of more than 1000 samples tested.
What is spreading extensively in Churachandpur district is viral fever. There are very few cases of JE or Dengue. As such, there is no need for declaring holidays in schools, he said.
Informing that the department has no arrangement to carry out mass vaccination at the moment, the Director cautioned that administering anti-JE vaccines to persons already vaccinated may prove harmful.
Nonetheless, vaccination campaigns are organised at places where JE cases have been confirmed apart from carrying out fogging exercises.
There are 55,000 doses of anti-JE vaccines in the department’s stock.
Only trained individuals can administer anti-JE vaccines.
A fever clinic has been already opened at Churachandpur and the situation is being monitored closely, Dr Ibomcha added. Notably, there were 200 positive cases of JE in the State in 2014 and six cases in 2015.
