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Date: Mon 16 Feb 2009
Source: Sify News [edited]
<http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14857020>
At least 230 people have died of meningitis in the north eastern
states of Tripura, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, officials said on Monday
[16 Feb 2009]. The situation is alarming in Meghalaya and Tripura,
they said. "We have asked the National Institute of Communicable
Diseases (NICD) in New Delhi to send necessary vaccine and drugs to
control the disease that has assumed an epidemic proportion in the
Longtharai Valley tribal areas of Dhalai district," said Tripura
health service director Satya Ranjan Debbarma.
The NICD last week asked the 3 north eastern states to keep a close
surveillance in remote locations, especially where the outbreak of
meningococcal meningitis was reported. "Over 230 people including
children and women died in the disease in Meghalaya (165 deaths),
Tripura (55 deaths), and Mizoram (10 deaths) over the past one
month," a senior health official told reporters [in Agartala,
Tripura]. Over 2500 people, including children and women, were taken
ill in the 3 states.
"The 3 north eastern states have borders with the Chittagong Hill
Tracts (CHT) of south east Bangladesh where meningococcal meningitis
is spreading in an epidemic form," said an official of the NICD.
The Tripura government has taken a slew of measures to control the
disease by setting up makeshift health centres in the affected
Longtharai Valley, 135 km [84 mi] north of the capital Agartala.
"Several medical teams [are] working in the affected areas
round-the-clock and preventive medicines were being given to 140 000
people in the tribal dominated areas," said RK Dhar, director of the
family welfare and preventive medicine.
A 2-member team of NICD led by joint director Jagdir Singh visited
the affected East Khasi Hills and Garo Hills areas of Meghalaya and
helped doctors in the region deal with the disease. "We have enough
anti-meningococcal meningitis vaccines and a number of medical teams
are working round-the-clock to deal with the situation," said
Meghalaya health service director A Kynjing. "Like the other north
eastern states, we have launched a massive public awareness campaign
on the need for cleanliness as it is an airborne disease," said YP
Singh, principal secretary of the Tripura government in-charge of
health department.
After visiting the affected areas, RK Dhar, an expert on communicable
diseases, said: "Meningococcal meningitis is a communicable disease
that is spread through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions.
The most common symptoms are stiff neck, high fever, headache, and
vomiting. Even when the disease is diagnosed early and adequate
therapy instituted, 5 to 10 percent of the patients die typically
within 24 to 48 hours of onset of symptoms," he said. Tripura Health
Minister Tapan Chakraborty, who is also camping in the affected
tribal areas for the past few days, held meetings with the village
heads of 40 affected villages and asked them to help health officials
and paramedics.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[An outbreak of a rapidly fatal illness in remote, impoverished
tribal areas of the Indian state of Tripura was characterized as
mysterious in a news release reported in the previous ProMED-mail
post Meningitis, meningococcal - India (03): (NE), RFI 20090216.0657.
From the news report above, it is apparent that this outbreak is now
thought to be part of the ongoing epidemic of meningococcal disease
in north eastern Indian states of Tripura, Mizoram, and Meghalaya
that has spread to neighboring Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
ProMED-mail has heard unofficially that the cause of the meningitis
epidemic in the north eastern Indian states of Tripura, Mizoram, and
Meghalaya, as well as Delhi, is said to be serogroup A _Neisseria
meningitidis_.
A HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of India that shows the
states of Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram can be found at
<http://healthmap.org/promed/en?g=1263207&g=1254169&g=1262963&&v=23,93,5>.
A map of Bangladesh showing the location of the Chittagong Hill
Tracts that borders the Indian state of Mizoram can be found at
<http://www.traveljournals.net/explore/bangladesh/map/m3773498/chittagong_hill_tract.html>.
- Mod.ML]
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?..._ID:1000,76162
Source: Sify News [edited]
<http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14857020>
At least 230 people have died of meningitis in the north eastern
states of Tripura, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, officials said on Monday
[16 Feb 2009]. The situation is alarming in Meghalaya and Tripura,
they said. "We have asked the National Institute of Communicable
Diseases (NICD) in New Delhi to send necessary vaccine and drugs to
control the disease that has assumed an epidemic proportion in the
Longtharai Valley tribal areas of Dhalai district," said Tripura
health service director Satya Ranjan Debbarma.
The NICD last week asked the 3 north eastern states to keep a close
surveillance in remote locations, especially where the outbreak of
meningococcal meningitis was reported. "Over 230 people including
children and women died in the disease in Meghalaya (165 deaths),
Tripura (55 deaths), and Mizoram (10 deaths) over the past one
month," a senior health official told reporters [in Agartala,
Tripura]. Over 2500 people, including children and women, were taken
ill in the 3 states.
"The 3 north eastern states have borders with the Chittagong Hill
Tracts (CHT) of south east Bangladesh where meningococcal meningitis
is spreading in an epidemic form," said an official of the NICD.
The Tripura government has taken a slew of measures to control the
disease by setting up makeshift health centres in the affected
Longtharai Valley, 135 km [84 mi] north of the capital Agartala.
"Several medical teams [are] working in the affected areas
round-the-clock and preventive medicines were being given to 140 000
people in the tribal dominated areas," said RK Dhar, director of the
family welfare and preventive medicine.
A 2-member team of NICD led by joint director Jagdir Singh visited
the affected East Khasi Hills and Garo Hills areas of Meghalaya and
helped doctors in the region deal with the disease. "We have enough
anti-meningococcal meningitis vaccines and a number of medical teams
are working round-the-clock to deal with the situation," said
Meghalaya health service director A Kynjing. "Like the other north
eastern states, we have launched a massive public awareness campaign
on the need for cleanliness as it is an airborne disease," said YP
Singh, principal secretary of the Tripura government in-charge of
health department.
After visiting the affected areas, RK Dhar, an expert on communicable
diseases, said: "Meningococcal meningitis is a communicable disease
that is spread through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions.
The most common symptoms are stiff neck, high fever, headache, and
vomiting. Even when the disease is diagnosed early and adequate
therapy instituted, 5 to 10 percent of the patients die typically
within 24 to 48 hours of onset of symptoms," he said. Tripura Health
Minister Tapan Chakraborty, who is also camping in the affected
tribal areas for the past few days, held meetings with the village
heads of 40 affected villages and asked them to help health officials
and paramedics.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[An outbreak of a rapidly fatal illness in remote, impoverished
tribal areas of the Indian state of Tripura was characterized as
mysterious in a news release reported in the previous ProMED-mail
post Meningitis, meningococcal - India (03): (NE), RFI 20090216.0657.
From the news report above, it is apparent that this outbreak is now
thought to be part of the ongoing epidemic of meningococcal disease
in north eastern Indian states of Tripura, Mizoram, and Meghalaya
that has spread to neighboring Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
ProMED-mail has heard unofficially that the cause of the meningitis
epidemic in the north eastern Indian states of Tripura, Mizoram, and
Meghalaya, as well as Delhi, is said to be serogroup A _Neisseria
meningitidis_.
A HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of India that shows the
states of Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram can be found at
<http://healthmap.org/promed/en?g=1263207&g=1254169&g=1262963&&v=23,93,5>.
A map of Bangladesh showing the location of the Chittagong Hill
Tracts that borders the Indian state of Mizoram can be found at
<http://www.traveljournals.net/explore/bangladesh/map/m3773498/chittagong_hill_tract.html>.
- Mod.ML]
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?..._ID:1000,76162
