Meghalaya gears up to contain JE outbreak

    21-Jun-2019
Newmai News Network
TURA, Jun 20 : The Government of Meghalaya has taken stock of the outbreak of the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in West Garo Hills (WGH) with Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma rushing to Tura on Thursday where he held an emergency meeting to review the status and situation and necessary steps undertaken to control the spread of the disease in the district.
Conrad was accompanied by Secretary Health, senior Health officials, JE specialists along with the district administration, Tura Municipal Board and the Veterinary department at DRDA Hall, Tura. The meeting was also attended by members of Locality Development Committees, Senior Citizens, Nokma Council and others.
During the meeting, Conrad reviewed the nature of the disease and precautionary measures taken by the department concerned in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
The power point presentation during this meeting showed the increase in the number of JE cases in the district with 17 cases in 2016, 5 cases and 1 death in 2017, 29 cases and 4 deaths in 2018 and 17 cases with 1 death till June 2019 in which 10 cases are from urban area.
Concerned by this portrayal of the disease, Conrad said that the trend is alarming and should be analysed seriously so that this problem can be tackled effectively in future.
Further, he also directed the health officials to conduct aggressive IEC awareness programs including the Dos and Don’ts about JE to the people and also to carry out fogging of the vulnerable localities where cases have been found and then extend to other localities of the district and also to continue regular fogging of the localities afterwards.
Mentioning the effects of climate change in the region, he said that these vector borne diseases are more likely to increase in future and has as such stressed on awareness to sensitize the people especially at the individual level to reduce mosquito density. Assuring support to the people of the area, he said that this is not the work of Government only, but everyone as the society should come together and cooperate to prevent this situation in future.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner of WGH district, Ram Singh has urged the citizens not to panic over the outbreak of the disease. He also called for patients suffering from the disease or any suspected patient to take precautions and get admitted to hospitals for observation and treatment.
The DC has also directed the health officials and departments concerned to conduct massive awareness programs and also to check all the localities since rearing of pigs in not allowed in urban areas. It may be mentioned that Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is a viral disease caused by Japanese Encephalitis (B) virus which is normally present in birds especially aquatic birds which is then transmitted through the amplifying host (pig or other cattle) to human by the bite of Culex mosquito. The infection is transmitted only through the bite of infected female Culex mosquito and there is no person to person transmission.