Two more deaths due to scrub typhus in Odisha, toll rises to 8

Health department officials on Sunday confirmed two more deaths due to scrub typhus in two different districts, taking the death toll in Odisha to eight

Health department officials on Sunday confirmed two more deaths due to scrub typhus in two different districts, taking the death toll in Odisha to eight.

Two more deaths due to scrub typhus infection, toll reaches to eight in Odisha. (Representational Image)

Scrub typhus, also known as bush typhus is a mite-borne bacterial infection caused by bites of infected larval mites.

Chief district medical officer of Kalahandi, Niharendra Panda said, “a 34-year-old woman farmer of Kalahandi district who had died in a private hospital on August 30 was found to have succumbed to the scrub typhus infection on Sunday.”

In Bargarh district, one more person succumbed to infection while being treated at a private nursing home on Sunday, Panda added. In Sundargarh, where 11 persons tested positive for the infection on Sunday, an elderly person has already succumbed to the disease last month. So far 180 persons have tested positive for Scrub Typhus in Sundargarh.

Sundargarh CDMO Kanhu Charan Nayak said there is ample stock of medicines for the patients and a special team of doctors has been pressed into service to attend to the scrub virus patients in the district. At the same time, a sensitisation programme was organised in Sundargarh district for doctors on Friday with a view to checking the disease. Scrub typhus can be detected through ELISA system available at the District Public Health Laboratory of all District Headquarters Hospitals in the state. If diagnosed early, the disease can be treated effectively,

The chiggers that transmit the disease generally live in low temperature and high humidity conditions, said Dr Shankar Ramchandani, assistant professor of medicine in Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research of Sambalpur district. He said four years ago Scrub Typhus cases were reported in south Odisha districts as well as Keonjhar while Bargarh district saw scrub typhus outbreak in 2014 last.

“The western Odisha districts may have experienced climatic condition that is favourable for the growth of the mites,” he said.