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GUWAHATI: Four people have died and 200 others have contracted dengue in Karbi Anglong, one of the two hill districts of Assam, officials said on Friday.
Most cases were reported from Diphu, the district headquarters. Officials said that this is the first time that dengue has broken out in a big way in Karbi Anglong.
“So far we have recorded 4 deaths and admitted 180 infected people to our hospital. There were other cases in the Out Patient Department (OPD) and now 26 patients have been admitted to the hospital including one in the ward. intensive care unit (ICU),” said Dr Ratul Takur, deputy superintendent, Diphu Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).
Officials said the first few cases were reported in the first week of October and the number of cases continued to increase in the following weeks. While new cases are still coming in, doctors say they may drop within a week or two as the rains stop.
“Usually, we have fewer cases of dengue in the north-eastern region than other parts of the country. The number of cases in the mountainous region is very rare, but this year there has been a sudden increase,” said Dr. Thakur.
Health officials said that measures such as reducing the sources of mosquito breeding, awareness raising and fogging especially in Diphu areas have been taken to reduce the number of cases.
“We are not seeing any dengue outbreak in Karbi Anglong. Only after the first few cases were detected did we increase monitoring and testing. The positive rate is very high and out of 250 tests, about 200 are infected,” he said. Dr Borsing Rongpi, joint director (health), Karbi Anglong.
“Last year, we conducted 75 investigations, only one person was found in the entire district. We still don’t understand why the disease broke out this year. Regional teams have come to Diphu and are conducting studies,” he added.
Officials said that most of the cases in previous years had a travel history of an infected person outside the district, but most of the cases this year had no travel history.
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