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Cause of disease still undiagnosed
Statesman News Service
KENDRAPARA, Oct. 16: Migrant workers employed elsewhere could be the carriers of the ?mystery? fever that has affected thousands of people here over the past fortnight. The state health department officials said the mysterious virus-borne disease has spread to more areas of human habitation in Patkura area of Kendrapara over the past three to four days.
The mystery fever was first detected in the river-locked Badakul village of Dasamouji delta region earlier this month. The number of affected persons in the village has meanwhile risen to over 1,200, said the health officials.
What has really pressed the panic buttons is that at least three more neighbouring villages ~ Dahimacha, Karanja and Ghanashyampur ~ have come under firm grip of the disease.
At least 350 persons, including women and children, are afflicted with fever, said the sources.
The patients are down with high body temperature while encountering excruciating pain in knee joints. The symptoms apparently match that of chikungunya. The officials are not yet sure of the kind of disease that had struck these villages.
The outbreak of chikungunya cannot be entirely ruled out. But the symptoms found among the affected are strikingly similar to that of chikungunya, said a senior surgeon in the District Headquarters Hospital. Slides of blood samples of 36 badly-affected persons from Badkul village have been dispatched to National Virology Institute in Pune. Confirmatory report on the nature of the disease is yet to be received from the institute.
After reports of more persons falling sick in peripheral villages of Badkul were received today, a medical team rushed to these areas. One more team of paramedics is being deployed in the villages to inculcate health and hygiene awareness.
There are visible signs of panic in the affected villages. While every household in Badkul is by and large affected by the scourge of the virus-borne disease, things are alarming in the adjoining villages with over 100 families suffering from mystery fever. Villagers are angered at the government?s health service network with accusations being made from various quarters that little attention was paid to the people affected by mystery fever.
Barring the visit of the specialists from the Social Preventive Medicine Department of SCB Medical College & Hospital last week, basic health service eludes majority of the affected people. The primary health centre located at Badakul has been without the services of a doctor for the past one year with a single para-medic in the hospital.
Cause of disease still undiagnosed
Statesman News Service
KENDRAPARA, Oct. 16: Migrant workers employed elsewhere could be the carriers of the ?mystery? fever that has affected thousands of people here over the past fortnight. The state health department officials said the mysterious virus-borne disease has spread to more areas of human habitation in Patkura area of Kendrapara over the past three to four days.
The mystery fever was first detected in the river-locked Badakul village of Dasamouji delta region earlier this month. The number of affected persons in the village has meanwhile risen to over 1,200, said the health officials.
What has really pressed the panic buttons is that at least three more neighbouring villages ~ Dahimacha, Karanja and Ghanashyampur ~ have come under firm grip of the disease.
At least 350 persons, including women and children, are afflicted with fever, said the sources.
The patients are down with high body temperature while encountering excruciating pain in knee joints. The symptoms apparently match that of chikungunya. The officials are not yet sure of the kind of disease that had struck these villages.
The outbreak of chikungunya cannot be entirely ruled out. But the symptoms found among the affected are strikingly similar to that of chikungunya, said a senior surgeon in the District Headquarters Hospital. Slides of blood samples of 36 badly-affected persons from Badkul village have been dispatched to National Virology Institute in Pune. Confirmatory report on the nature of the disease is yet to be received from the institute.
After reports of more persons falling sick in peripheral villages of Badkul were received today, a medical team rushed to these areas. One more team of paramedics is being deployed in the villages to inculcate health and hygiene awareness.
There are visible signs of panic in the affected villages. While every household in Badkul is by and large affected by the scourge of the virus-borne disease, things are alarming in the adjoining villages with over 100 families suffering from mystery fever. Villagers are angered at the government?s health service network with accusations being made from various quarters that little attention was paid to the people affected by mystery fever.
Barring the visit of the specialists from the Social Preventive Medicine Department of SCB Medical College & Hospital last week, basic health service eludes majority of the affected people. The primary health centre located at Badakul has been without the services of a doctor for the past one year with a single para-medic in the hospital.
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