Assam: Dibrugarh reports decline in Japanese Encephalitis cases

The upper Assam district has recorded only a single case of Japanese Encephalitis(JE) and 4 cases of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome(AES) between January 1 to July 9, 2021. One person with AES has also succumbed to the disease during the period.

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By Avik Chakraborty

DIBRUGARH:

Dibrugarh district has reported a huge decline in vector-borne diseases over the last three years after National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) ramped up measures to control the six vector-borne diseases.


The upper Assam district has recorded only a single case of Japanese Encephalitis(JE) and 4 cases of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome(AES) between January 1 to July 9, 2021. One person with AES has also succumbed to the disease during the period.


Once considered a hotbed of JE and AES, the Dibrugarh district has shown a considerable decline in the number of cases this year. 


There has been a significant drop in JE and AES cases in Dibrugarh compared to the past two years. In 2019, Dibrugarh recorded 33 JE cases and 285 AES cases. Additionally, there were 11 JE deaths and 31 AES deaths that year. The number of cases came down in 2020 with 13 JE cases and 29 AES cases being reported from the district. There were also 2 JE deaths and 5 AES deaths last year.


Siddhartha Saikia, district consultant of the Directorate of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) said, "Due to the sincere efforts of health department the cases have come down in Dibrugarh."


"We have so far detected 1 JE case and 4 AES cases in the district and we are quite hopeful that the total cases will be quite negligible this year. The efforts of the health department have borne fruits in tackling the dreaded disease," he added.


He further added that awareness among people and improvement of facilities at primary health centres, community health centres, district hospitals immunisation of children has played a major role in bringing the cases down and also kept a check on the death rates.


"So far we have conducted 2,452 door to door visits to create awareness. Moreover, we have distributed 25,217 medicated mosquito nets among the people. Fogging is being done in the rural pockets as well as in the urban vulnerable pockets of Dibrugarh town like Paltanbazar, Dibrujan and Loharpatty," Siddhartha Saikia informed.

(Edited by Shankar Kumar Turha)

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