New Delhi: The death toll from the outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis in Assam rose to 101 on Sunday, according to a National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin.
The NHM bulletin also stated that the cumulative figures for Japanese Encephalitis/Acute Encephalitis Syndrome deaths in Assam since January was 222, while the number of JE/AES-positive cases during this period stood at 1,569.
Several districts from Assam, including Jorhat, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur and Kamrup, have been affected by the outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease.
Acute encephalitis syndrome or AES is an umbrella term for infections that cause swellings in the brain.
On June 30, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan dispatched a team to Assam to review the cases of that had been reported from the state.
Also read: As India Reels Under Japanese Encephalitis, Officials Remain Slow on the Uptake
The centre also covered all 27 districts of Assam under the vaccination programme against Japanese Encephalitis for children aged between 1-15 years.
On July 6, according to a report in India Today, state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that a total of 49 deaths and 190 cases of Japanese encephalitis had been reported in Assam till July 5, 2019.
The minister also said that enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits to detect the virus had been distributed across district hospitals and medical colleges and intensified fogging operations had been carried out in 1,094 affected villages.
Sarma also highlighted that efforts were underway to spread awareness about the virus and vaccinations via routine immunisation for children had been initiated. The minister also said that the central government has committed to supporting adult vaccination programmes in the state after the Japanese encephalitis season was over.
As the outbreak appeared to spread beyond the nine districts that had been previously vulnerable to the Japanese Encephalitis virus to 26 districts, Assam was put on alert. “The vector density in Assam is higher due to presence of lot of large water bodies,” Dr B.C. Bhagobati, State Surveillance Officer, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme of Assam, told NDTV.
Sarma also pointed out that “Assam is an ecologically favourable region for the spread of JE owing to heavy rainfall, large paddy fields with big water bodies, pig farming and domestic pig rearing, all of which support the virus propagation”.
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In July, Bihar was also struck by cases of the Japanese Encephalitis virus for the first time in the year of 2019.
Responding to an unstarred Lok Sabha question by MP Deepak Baij, the Union minister of state, health and family welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey, on July 19, revealed that over 600 people had died in Assam due to Japanese Encephalitis since 2014.
Another recent reply to an unstarred Lok Sabha question on July 12 disclosed that Assam had 947 cases of the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome with 128 deaths caused by it and another 215 cases of the Japanese Encephalitis with 56 deaths caused by it up till July 7, 2019.