3 more die, Assam JE toll rises to 71

With the death of three more patients, the Japanese Encephalitis in Assam rose to 71, a National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin said here Friday.

The number of registered positive JE cases also increased to 334 from 306 on Thursday.

Of the three fresh deaths reported, two were from Dibrugarh and one from Goalpara district, said the NHM bulletin.

Giving the cumulative figures for JE/AES (Acute Encephalitis Syndrome), the bulletin said there were 165 deaths and 1,280 cases reported since January.

Measures to control the mosquito borne disease that affects the brain continued to be taken across the state which is currently undergoing a transmission season for Japanese Encephalitis, NHM sources said.

Treatment and diagnostic cost for JE/AES is being borne by the government at state run hospitals where certain number of beds in all the ICUs and wards were reserved for such patients.

"The AES is inflammation of the brain and spinal cord caused due to viral, bacterial and parasitic causes out of which JE is a virus transmitted through culex mosquito," Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said recently.

The primary reservoir of this virus is migratory birds like Heron, Cattle Egrets and pigs which act as an amplifying host. People who come in contact with these pigs or birds may suffer from JE, he had said.