Assam reports highest encephalitis cases in Northeast

GUWAHATI: The state reported 3,391 Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases from 2010 to 2016 - the highest in the region. It also reported 779 JE deaths within the same period - also the highest in the region - despite the previous government having rolled out initiatives like introduction of vaccination programmes for adults between 2012 and 2014.
Between 2010 and 2016, Manipur reported 108 cases and six deaths, Nagaland 41 cases and five deaths, Meghalaya 150 cases and 15 deaths, Tripura 152 cases and five deaths, and Arunachal only 64 cases and five deaths.
In 2010, Assam reported 142 JE cases with 40 casualties. The following year, the number of cases shot up to 489 and 113 people died. In 2012, even as JE cases came down slightly to 463, the casualty figure was still an alarming 100. Ironically, in 2014, 761 JE cases were reported and 165 deaths. The scourge continued in 2015 when 614 cases and 135 deaths were reported, as well as last year with 427 cases and 92 deaths.
The state health department plans to roll out a vaccine campaign for adults between the ages of 15 and 65 in four districts considered endemic to JE and AES from the second week of March. This campaign was supposed to be initiated by the second week of February.
"It is true that Assam has the maximum number of JE cases when compared to other states in the northeast. This is due to the state's terrain and its agricultural background. Paddy fields are strewn across the length and breadth of the state," said an official of the state chapter of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP).