JE cases not tested for scrub typhus: IGMC docs

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan,June 8

Even as experts from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are working to detect the cause of two Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases, which surfaced in Solan villages, doctors at the IGMC confirmed that no scrub typhus test was done on the two patients.

A team from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) which scanned the test records of the two patients at the IGMC, Shimla, learnt that since the scrub typhus occurs during the monsoon, the two patients were not tested for the virus.

According to information gathered by the team from the ministry, one child suffered from a fungal infection candida tropicalis, which was detected in the urine and blood on May 29, a day after the child was admitted to the IGMC. The child was diagnosed as having viral encephalitis according to the lab reports of the National Institute of Virology, Pune.

Since the state is endemic to scrub typhus where hundreds of cases emerge every year, the experts said that there could be a cross reactivity to scrub typhus. The team from the NVBDCP after collecting relevant data from the IGMC and the Secretary (Health) went back on Thursday while the other team from the National Communicable Disease Control Programme comprising Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers visited the affected villages on Friday also and collected key inputs to help them assess the cause of the disease.

The scant diagnostic facilities and the shortage of staff at the Regional Hospital here has emerged as a key point of concern for the Central health teams that have taken note of the lack of human resource at the hospital. Even the absence of a pediatrician when the JE cases were detected has put a question mark over the healthcare facilities in the state as both the JE-affected children failed to get any cure at the local hospital and had to be referred to the IGMC.