Dibrugarh: The death toll from encephalitis in Assam this year has touched 218 with Dibrugarh district recording the highest number of casualties.

The director of state health services, Rathindra Nath Bhuyan, said from January 1 to August 1 this year, 149 people have died of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) while 69 people succumbed to Japanese encephalitis (JE) in the state.

Among the districts, Dibrugarh has recorded the highest deaths at 25, of which 19 were AES and six JE cases.

Sivasagar recorded the second highest deaths with AES claiming 11 lives and JE eight. In Nagaon, 10 people have died of AES and seven of JE so far.

Bhuyan said JE cases increase with the monsoon and this year monsoon started early. “Monsoon started from June this year and maximum cases of JE were detected between June and August. The first round of DDT has already been sprayed and the second round has been started. After a JE case is detected in an area, we fog 3km around it in accordance with the guidelines of the World Health Organisation,” he said.

The outbreak of JE usually coincides with the monsoon and pre-monsoon season. The three months from June to August are the peak period for the disease. Domestic pigs and wild birds are carriers of JEvirus while stagnant water is the breeding ground for Culex mosquito, which is the main vector of the disease.

After the recent spate of floods in Dibrugarh, the places most affected – Bordoibam, Lezai, Doh Kalkhowa, Sakoipathar, Sessa, Kinar, Maina Mising Gaon and Pani Miri Gaon, among other villages – face JE threat.

“The floods submerged our entire village and damaged our crops. We had to take shelter in schools along with our domestic animals,” said Amar Das, a resident of Thane Gaon.

“Every year, the health department fogs our area but this year they have not done anything,” said Radhakanta Mech, a resident of Khalihamari, a locality of Dibrugrah town.

Robin Das, a resident of Amraguri, on the outskirts of Dibrugrah town, said, “They have not come here for fogging. Mosquitoes are increasing day by day in our locality. The situation is so bad in the evening that we cannot stay in our houses.”

However, officials of the malaria department claimed that fogging had been done in Amraguri.

One of them said fogging had been done in most of the urban areas under Dibrugarh Municipality Board this year but some areas had to be left out as the roads were too narrow for the fogging vehicles.

The joint director of health services, Dibrugarh, Pawan Swarnakar, told The Telegraph that fogging cannot reduce JE cases, it just creates a sense of protection against the disease among people.

He said the government had earlier sanctioned Rs 18,000 for fogging but later they upped it to Rs 1 lakh and the money has been given to public health centres.

Health department officials in Guwahati said 1,256 cases of AES and 304 cases of JE have been reported in the state so far this year.

“In the flood-affected areas, the respective district health services are conducting awareness programmes and fogging to ascertain that JE and AES cases do not increase during the post-flood period,” an official of the department said.

Preventive steps

The Mizoram government has taken preventive steps to combat Japanese encephalitis.

The decision was taken following the outbreak of the disease in neighbouring Churachandpur district of Manipur. Sources said two persons had died of the disease in the state. The state government had made Aizawl civil hospital the central hospital to monitor the Japanese encephalitis cases in the state. A statement released by the Mizoram health department today said necessary equipment and health workers had been posted in the civil hospital to check the cases.

Till today, no Japanese encephalitis case has been detected in Mizoram. The government has banned the import of domestic animals like cattle, chicken, pigs and buffaloes from Manipur.

The government has directed health officials to conduct extensive awareness programmes in different corners of the state, including the rural villages along the Manipur-Mizoram border.

Additional reporting by Barnali Handique in Guwahati and Nilotpal Bhattacharjee in Silchar