By Sobhapati Samom
But unfortunately Baby Lalrilu, the only daughter of a young Rongmei widow Luma, 39, a resident of Langthabal Chingkhong village in Imphal West district, passed away the following day.
The family of the child including grandmother Pantiguru, was unaware of the cause of the death. “We still don’t know what kind of disease had attacked our grandchild”, Pantiguru said.
The family and the State Health officials remain clueless about the cause of the disease until the Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh and National Centre for Disease Control , New Delhi confirmed that her blood samples tested positive for Japanese encephalitis. Thus, the State Health department’s surveillance report identified her as one of the victims of Japanese Encephalitis outbreak in the State.
A day after, another baby Fankiya, six, of Lilong Tureal Ahanbi village in Thoubal district also died three days after her hospitalisation following similar symptoms.
Last year, Fankiya’s locality had witnessed outbreak of an unknown disease. “One 12 year old girl and 28 year old man were hospitalised due to the unknown disease”, Fankiya’s father Fariduddin recalled.
Even though the victims of the epidemic were mostly young children, a visit to another victim Haobijam Mema, 45 at Sawombung Wairi-Khundrakpam village in Imphal East district indicated that it does not spare adults as Mema had a similar history behind the cause of his death.
As many as 34 persons were officially reported dead in Manipur due to similar syndrome of Japanese Encephalitis within July last. Most of the victims, including the first three victims – M Sanathoi of Irengbam village, Salam Naocha of Loktak project both from Bishnupur district and Bharat of Kangpokpi under Senapati district, lived in the periphery of rice fields.
State Malaria Office, however, claimed that the actual death toll because of the Japanese Encephalitis epidemic was just nine while around 60 suspected cases were given symptomatic treatment though Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) epidemic had claimed 15 lives during the outbreak.
Even if the disease was cyclical in it’s appearance, no Japanese Encephalitis cases were reported in 2005 and 2006. But the State recorded a single case in 2007 followed by four other suspected cases in 2008. Last year, around 64 suspected cases were detected, but there was no report of any casualty due to the epidemic unlike in the current year.
The overall situation of the State has shown a substantial increase in total malaria cases from 708 to 1,069 (51 per cent) in 2009 as compared with the same period in 2008. Interestingly, as an anti-Malaria measure, the State Malaria office distributed 3,09,718 mosquito nets treated with insecticides last year.
But it was quite a surprise for the common man to hear how the dreaded epidemic appeared all of a sudden in Manipur. The State is no more a place of pleasant weather or cold place anymore”, Kh Meghachandra, Officer in Charge of Meteorological (MET) Office, Imphal said. “It would be interesting if one observes the rainfall pattern of the State for the last few years”.
Unlike the last decade, summer is refusing to end in Manipur with MET office unable to predict little or more rain even in the peak monsoon months. Manipur recorded actual rainfall of 594.7 mm during last year’s monsoon (June to September) against this year’s rainfall of 801.1 mm. In 2008 monsoon, the State recorded rainfall of 625.3 mm.
Although the State experienced a drought last year, it seemed the State had enough rain this year. This year’s early monsoon helped the germination process of rice across 1.68 lakh hectares of cultivable land out of State’s 1.90 lakh hectares of agricultural land since early June.
As a result, most of the rice fields both in the valley and hills of the State, besides the urban area, have enough stagnant water which happened to be the best breeding ground of Culex, a mosquito species that spreads Japanese Encephalitis. “So the chances of the outbreak of the disease is very high if there is early monsoon”, Y Krishna, Entomologist of the State Malaria office said.
T Kamini, a Biologist at the State Malaria Control Office, said the population of the Culex could increase when the stagnant water submerge the paddy fields.
So the mosquitoes breeding in the nearby rice field must have bitten the villagers particularly the children and spread the disease, a senior official at State Health Services Directorate observed. The climate change is a major factor for the outbreak of the epidemic this year.
Mushrooming of piggery both in the rural and urban areas is also another factor for the sudden rise of population of Culex as pig being one of it’s host animals, a senior researcher at the Department of Bio-technology in Manipur University said. “However, no study or investigation has been done so far”. The busy State Health officials are also yet to look into the matter.
A decade back, in Imphal, the maximum temperature was about 30 to 33 degree Celsius. But now it has climbed to 35-36 degree Celsius since last year. “This indicates that Manipur is warming up. This may directly or indirectly be related with the climate change and global warming”, the MET official said.
Though this kind of mosquito that spreads the epidemic couldn’t survive if the temperature goes down below 16 degree Celsius, they were very active in the warm temperature ranging from 20-30 degree Celsius, the Biologist explained. “That these mosquitoes have become active in Manipur means that the climate of the region has warmed up to some extent”.
The global warming affects insects and pests. Mosquitoes have migrated to higher altitudes and have adapted there. This poses new health problems. There will be more and more cases of mosquito related diseases earlier never heard of.
Not to speak of the valley, even the hill dwellers in Manipur’s Ukhrul district headquarter, 84 km north-east of the State capital Imphal have started to use mosquito nets since the last two years. “We have been using bed nets to protect ourselves from mosquito bites since last year”, AS Haorela, housewife at Ukhrul town said. “Earlier we never used it. But now some of the families even started to use ceiling fans”. This shows that hill stations such as Ukhrul is no more the cool place it used to be.
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