Amidst the ethnic troubles, at least four people were killed in Dengue and the number of positive cases due to the vector-borne diseases recorded 1,360 in Manipur so far this year, health officials said on Sunday.

Health and Family Welfare Department officials said that the state government has intensified preventive and containment measures in affected districts.

According to the officials, 1,360 positive Dengue cases have been reported so far this year with four people dying from vector-borne diseases.

Of the four dengue deaths reported this year, three were in the Imphal West district and one in the Bishnupur district.

Out of 16 districts in Manipur, the most affected districts are Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur and Thoubal, which are all valley districts.

Imphal West district reported the highest number of 938 Dengue-positive cases so far this year, followed by Imphal East district, which registered 285 cases.

So far, 43 Dengue-positive cases each reported from Thoubal and Kakching district while Bishnupur reported 23 cases.

The officials said that four hill districts –Tengnoupal, Churachandpur, Jiribam and Pherzawl have not reported a single case of Dengue positive so far this year.

The state health department in collaboration with other line departments and local organisations has been continuing fogging and mass awareness campaigns for the containment of the disease, the officials said.

Manipur Health and Family Welfare Minister Sapam Ranjan Singh said that compared to last year, the number of dengue cases is comparatively low this year so far.

The Minister, however, expressed concern over the higher number of Dengue cases in the state’s two main districts — Imphal East and Imphal West with both districts being inhabited by a maximum number of people in the state.

Singh said that the health department accompanied by other line departments has taken a series of steps to protect the people from Dengue.

The concerned departments are identifying the sources of the disease, destruction of the breeding grounds and neutralizing the virus besides undertaking awareness programmes and fogging at positive areas.

A total of 2,548 dengue cases were detected in 2023 and 503 in 2022 in Manipur.

Though there was no Dengue-related death last year, four people were killed by the disease in 2022.