Bhubaneswar: At least five people in Odisha’s Bargarh district died within a month due to scrub typhus infection, which spreads through bites of infected chiggers (larval mites), an official said on Wednesday.
According to Bargarh Chief District Medical and Public Health Officer, Sadhu Charan Das, two of the deceased were from Sohela block, while one such death case was reported from Attabira, Bheden and Barpali blocks of the district.
Those who died of the infection were diagnosed in hospitals outside the district, Das said, adding that two cases were detected in Burla Medical College, two others in a private hospital and another in a Bolangir hospital.
Das said that 142 samples were tested for scrub typhus detected in the district between September 1 and 10. Of these, four were found positive and all are now doing fine.
As many as 168 samples were tested in Bargarh district during August. However, no one was found infected with scrub typhus, he said.
On the other hand, Public Health Director Dr Niranjan Mishra alerted people about the mite-borne disease. The scrub typhus infection spreads when a chigger bites someone. The persons who frequently visit farmland or forests are vulnerable to the infection, he said.
The most common symptoms of scrub typhus include fever and a black inflamed mark on the skin called ‘eschar’, Mishra said.
When fever continues for several days, the patient should go through an ELISA test to scrub typhus. The test is available at the district public health laboratory of all district headquarters hospitals in the state.
If diagnosed early, the disease can be treated effectively, he said.
Scrub typhus cases have been detected in several other districts including Keonjhar, Nabarangpur and Sundergarh. However, there is no need to panic, the director added.
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