SAMBALPUR: After Sundargarh and Bargarh, the Central medical team visited Sambalpur on Monday to assess the scrub typhus situation in the district.
During their visit, the four-member team reviewed the treatment facilities for scrub typhus patients at the Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Burla on the day. They also analysed the patient records and held discussion with superintendent besides heads of various departments of the hospital.
Superintendent Lalmohan Naik said, the team expressed satisfaction over the treatment facilities and care of scrub typhus infected patients at VIMSAR though they were not quite happy with the testing.
“On an average we are conducting more than 2000 tests for scrub typhus using card-based method each month. The team advised us to conduct ELISA test on at least 5 per cent of the positive and negative samples to analyse the characteristics of the disease and derive other information about it,” Naik stated.
We have laboratory facilities and equipment for the ELISA test, Naik said adding, while as many as 28 patients were tested positive with the vector-borne disease in the month of September, around seven active patients are currently undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Later, the central team also visited the Sambalpur district headquarters hospital (DHH), where they reviewed the medical records and held discussions with the hospital staff.
The records at DHH showed the number of positive scrub typhus cases remained low between January and June while it increased during the months of August and September. The DHH has recorded 226 positive scrub typhus cases in last two months including 74 patients in August and 152 cases in September.
Earlier on Sunday, the team had visited Bargarh, where the disease has already claimed six lives. On Saturday, they visited Sundargarh where a sudden spike in scrub typhus cases were reported recently.
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