With the conducive weather conditions the number of cases of the rickettsial disease, scrub typhus has started pouring at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) from across the state.
In the last three days the state’s premier hospital IGMC and the hospital has witnessed 30 patients testing positive for the disease, which is the highest in three consecutive days for 2017.
So far the hospital has treated 72 patients suffering from the disease.
IGMC, Senior Medical Superintendent, Ramesh Chand confirming of the cases pouring during the last three days in large numbers, said that the cases pouring in are mostly referral cases from across the state.
The number of patients is expected to increase, each passing day up to October, till the cycle of the disease persists, he added.
Ramesh Chand cautioned that the symptoms of the disease include high fever, headache, cough, muscle pain and gastrointestinal symptoms and if not treated the disease is often fatal.
He added that serological investigations like Weil-Felix test for confirming the rickettsial disease is being conducted at the Microbiology Department of IGMC.
The disease is transmitted through mites, which are found in areas of heavy scrub vegetation, he added.
Scrub typhus was totally curable with simple antibiotics like doxycycline and azithromycin, he said.
According to official figures by the Health Department from across the state till August 16, as many as 2,373 tests conducted out of which 186 tested positive, while no deaths have been reported.
Last year from across HP scrub typhus took a toll of 37 lives with 1,175 testing positive, that included 632 positive cases and 21 deaths at IGMC and Dr Rajinder Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda in Kangra (RPGMC) witnessed 318 positive cases, while the disease claimed 16 lives. It is pertinent to mention that the first outbreak of scrub typhus had been confirmed in the state in 2003, following hundreds of cases being reported at IGMC owing to a mystery disease that claimed many lives.
The worst being affected were the three districts of Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan. A team of entomologist from National Institute of Communicable disease (NICD) visited HP and conducted surveys of the areas from where majority of the cases had been reported so as to advise the state government on the public health measures to be taken to prevent its recurrence.
The trend of the disease was usually witnessed during in the monsoons during the month of July to mid October owing to the prevalence of the vector and bacteria carried by rodents that thrives during the hot and humid conditions making it a conducive for its spread.