india

Updated: Jun 23, 2019 14:59 IST

The three-day mass fever survey, carried out following encephalitis deaths in Bihar, did not find any acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) case in East Singhbhum district, said officials on Saturday. The surveyors, however, detected 124 cases of brain malaria and one case of mixed malaria in malaria-prone blocks, Mosaboni and Dumaria, officials said.

“We have detected 124 cases of brain malaria and a case of mixed malaria (plasmodium vivax and plasmodium falciparum) in Monsaoni and Dumaria blocks during mass fever survey between Thursday and Saturday. We have already started treatment of the patients,” said Dr AK Lal, district malaria officer. Lal said that the officials also suggested preventive measures to check the spread of the disease. “We have asked the villagers not to use stagnated water and distribute mosquito nets,” he said.

State vector-borne disease control programme (SVBDCP) undertook the mass fever survey in 89 community health centers across Jharkhand which were found to have more than 1 API (annual parasitic index). The development came after over 100 deaths in Bihar due to AES. One person in Dumka was diagnosed with Japanese Encephalitis (JE).

A JE patient had in Jamshedpur in March this year while three dengue and one chikungunya cases were detected in the city this week. As per health department records, 34 JE cases were reported from Jamshedpur this year of which only one case was positive.

A total of 1035 samples were tested from Mosaboni and 1119 samples were tested from Dumaria during the three-day drive.

Sources said that a large number of positive cases were found in Somaidih under Mosaboni Block and Rangamatiya under Dumaria Block during the survey.

“Villagers store water from streams for daily use in Somaidih. Almost all tube-wells had gone defunct. This is one reason why mosquitoes breed easily leading to spread of malaria,” sources said. “Similarly, Rangamatiya under Dumaria is inaccessible being located in hilly forest area with no roads. People there also face water scarcity,” the sources added.