More than 50 people living in a tribal village in Birbhum district have been admitted to the Rampurhat hospital with diarrhoea-like symptoms. Forty-nine of them have been found to be suffering from scrub typhus.

Two persons have already died due to the unknown disease in this tribal village. The incident has occurred in Gajipara, whose inhabitants are mostly tribals. Gajipara village is situated in Mayureswar number one block in Birbhum district. A high-level medical team, comprising experts, has already visited the village to ascertain the exact cause behind the outbreak of the epidemic.

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Sources in the Birbhum health department said that, so far, 56 persons have been admitted to the Rampurhat Medical College and Hospital with symptoms of high fever, vomiting, abdominal pain, headache and diarrhoea. Four more patients were admitted to the hospital in the past four days. Chief Medical Officer Health (CMOH) of the Rampurhat Health District, Dr Shobhan Dey, said that the scrub typhus disease broke out in the Mayureswar number one block in the past one week. “We have sent a team of medical experts and blood samples are being collected from the villagers. We are keeping an eye on the situation which is currently under control,” he said.

Two tribals – Thakdun Tudu and Durga Mumru – of Gajipara village under the Jhikadda Gram Panchayat area have already died and primary reports of the district health department have mentioned diarrhoea as the cause of death. However, the health department suspects that both of them died due to scrub typhus infection.

A temporary medical camp has been set up in the tribal areas of Gajipara village. Sumita Maddi, a local, said that a large number of villagers have fallen ill in Gajipara in the last one week and are suffering from headache, vomiting, severe abdominal pain, fever and diarrhoea.

Scrub typhus or bush typhus is a form of typhus caused by the intracellular parasite Orientia tsutsugamushi, a Gram-negative aproteobacterium of family Rickettsiaceae, and was first isolated and identified in 1930 in Japan. Scrub typhus is transmitted by some species of trombiculid mites (chiggers, particularly Leptotrombidium deliense), which are found in areas of heavy scrub vegetation. The mites feed on infected rodent hosts and subsequently transmit the parasite to other rodents and humans. The bite of this mite leaves a characteristic black eschar which doctors examine for diagnostic purposes.