More fogging machines, lab assured
Source: The Sangai Express

CCpur, July 31 2016: Several top officials from the State Health Department who came visiting the district to take stock of the situation following the outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and the overwhelming cases of viral fever, have assured more fogging machines and a laboratory even as they instructed district health officials to ensure that there is no dearth in resources to tackle the situation.

The official team headed by PK Singh, Commissioner Health and O Ibomcha, Director Health interacted with the district health officials and the Deputy Commissioner to understand the situation.

The team, also comprising of top officials from Family Welfare, Malaria Department, State Health Mission and the State Epidemiologist sought to fine-tune the response of the district officials and instructed them to continue the fumigation exercise within 2 square kilometres from where JE cases have been identified as well as in other susceptible areas.

The Health Commissioner has, on learning about the inconveniences of conducting tests at Imphal, instructed the accompanying officials to station the needed manpower and machinery to establish a laboratory at the district hospital.

The delay in obtaining the test results has often turned costly in several instances in the past and a laboratory at the district hospital is expected to empower the health officials to more effectively respond to any outbreak in the district.

The JE vaccination exercise which witnessed a mad rush before it was withdrawn is not the proper way to respond to the outbreak as there is no certainty in its potency on adults, said the officials.

The vaccine obtained from China is said to work only for children below 15 years and is different from the vaccine used by western countries.

Besides, the vaccine unleashes its potential only after about a month of receiving the shot and thus administering them to the masses may only aggravate the health and could turn out to be a waste of resources, they noted.

The expert team also instructed officials to continue the fumigation exercise and promised to deliver three more machines to the two already in station.

They have also instructed district officials to ensure sufficient medicines to tackle the overwhelming cases of viral fever and be prepared to tackle any further worsening of JE cases.

Advising the officials to focus on disseminating awareness amongst the population, the team pushed for an extensive publication of facts on newspapers and cable television.

They also gave instructions of how to use the fumigation machines saying that the fumes should be directed upwards to cover maximum area and unleash its potential but also cautioned against excessive usage.

It may be noted here that the district administration had announced a week long holiday for education institutions in the district to help control the spread of viral fever that has affected thousands of students and adults alike.

It had also issued instructions for removal of pig-sty and non-septic toilets located in close proximity to schools within a week.

The Deputy Commissioner Lunminthang Haokip also told the visiting team that village authorities are instructed to utilize at least two man-days of the MGNREG scheme on cleaning up the localities.

Meanwhile an official data released by the District Immunisation Office, Churachandpur revealed that 10 suspected cases of JE have been tested for JE out of which three have turned out to be positive and two negative.

Five others are said to be unequivocal � meaning they are inconclusive, and re-test on the samples will be conducted after 8 days of incubation to obtain the true results.

The list however did not include some suspected cases where the patients have already expired and two others cases that have been sent to Imphal yesterday for conducting the test.

As for the viral fever that has triggered the JE panic and the mad rush for its vaccine as the symptoms in both cases are very identical, health authorities said samples have been sent to NIV Pune to ascertain the exact nature of virus that causes the highly contagious fever.

Another data provided by the District Hospital showed that cases of viral fever after opening a Fever Clinic on July 23 is steadily declining with the peak figure of 415 recorded on Wednesday (27 July) against the latest figure of 345 recorded yesterday (30 July) .

However, random surveys on Sunday Schools conducted within the town today indicated that there still are rampant cases of fever amongst the children despite a considerable decline in the figure.

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