Kala Azar outbreak confirmed in Assam
Kala Azar outbreak confirmed in Assam
Guwahati: The outbreak of Kala Azar or black fever in Assam has been confirmed with 27 of the 39 reported cases testing positive.
Regional Director of Union Health Department Partha Jyoti Gogoi told PTI here that though 27 of the 39 cases tested positive, there was no need to panic as the disease is curable and effective drugs are available here to treat the patients.
He said the blood samples of the patients were sent to the Regional Medical Research Centre at Dibrugarh and Patna for entomological tests.
Two patients were, however, diagnosed to have been suffering from TB-related fever and not Kala Azar. The patients were from Chandrapur-Panikhaiti area in the city.
The disease spread through sand fly bite and some of the symptoms of the disease were intermittent fever, anaemia, acute weakness and nausea that affected the liver, bone marrow, lymph nodes and spleen.
Kala Azar was rarely reported these days and considered almost eradicated though it was a major killer in the last century.
The Assam government has sounded an alert across the state instructing health department officials to take precautionary measures and immediately provide medical treatment to the affected persons.
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