Meningitis leaves 30 dead in Meghalaya

[Niko]

Monday, March 31, 2008 : 1630 Hrs

Meningitis leaves 30 dead in Meghalaya

Shillong (PTI): At least 30 people have died, mostly in Garo Hills areas, as reports of cases of fever spread due to meningococcal meningitis have sent the Meghalaya health department into a tizzy.
Official sources on Monday said the disease has spread in Rongjeng, Songsak, Mansang, Dagal and Samanda areas of Garo Hills with approximately 30 deaths reported by the District Medical and Health Officer of East Garo Hills over the past three weeks.
An unspecified number of patients has been admitted to various hospitals in the district.
The state health department has intensified surveillance and arranged mass treatment to people in the affected areas.
A Rapid Response Team, which is camping at Garo Hills, has visited the affected areas and blood samples have been collected and despatched to the Pasteur Institute, Shillong for testing. Samples have been also sent to the National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD), New Delhi for identification of the specific bacteria.
The sources also said the surveillance teams have been instructed to send the samples to Delhi daily and monitor the feedback and confirmation reports.
Awareness programmes are also in progress and anti-malarial medicines have been kept in sufficient stock to meet emergency needs.

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghalaya)

Meghalaya is a small state in north-eastern India. The word "Meghalaya" literally means "The Abode of Clouds" in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. Meghalaya is a hilly strip in the eastern part of the country about 300 km long (east-west) and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 22,429 km². The population numbered 2,175,000 in 2000. The state is bounded on the north by Assam and by Bangladesh on the south. The capital is Shillong, which has a population of 260,000.

Garo Hills

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<!-- start content --> The Garo Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in Meghalaya, India. They are inhabited mainly by tribal dwellers. Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, is located in this range. It is one of the wettest places in the world. The range is part of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion.
Garo Hills comprises 3 districts. Tura is the largest town with a population of about 70,000 located at the foothills of often cloud covered Tura peak. The town is centrally located to other popular game/wild life sanctuaries in the district such as Balpakram and Nokrek, natural caves (the Siju cave being one of the longest in Asia). These places are rich reserves of natural flora and fauna.

<table style="text-align: left; background-color: transparent;"><tbody><tr><th id="Coordi">Coordinate</th> <td headers="Coordi"> 25° 30′ 0″ N, 90° 20′ 0″ E </td> <th id="dec">Decimal</th> <td headers="dec Coordi">25.5°, 90.333333°</td></tr></tbody></table>