JEYPORE: Japanese Encephalitis (JE) claimed the life of an infant in Koraput district on Tuesday. The deceased is one-year-old Abhijit Mohanty of Jeypore Bank Colony.
Abhijit was suffering from brain fever since the last few days and was admitted to District Headquarters Hospital in Koraput. He was later shifted to a private hospital in Visakhapatnam.
Doctors at the private hospital suspected him of suffering from Japanese Encephalitis and examined his serum samples, which were found positive for the disease.
Abhijit’s parents later brought him back to Koraput Hospital and was under treatment at the Special Newborn Care Unit. He succumbed on Tuesday evening. With Abhijit’s death, the JE toll reached seven in the district.
On October 10, a three-year-old boy, Rajendra Muduli of Medri Street here, died of suspected JE. The disease was first reported from Kotpad block of the district in September when two children of Chitra Welfare School died.
Sources said four students of the school had died of suspected brain fever in Koraput Hospital and the Health Department had sent their serum or cerebrospinal fluid samples for Japanese Encephalitis test to Berhmapur.
The reports confirmed that two of the four children died of JE. Two more children affected by the virus had died in the DHH on October 7. But, they belonged to Nabarangpur and Malkangiri districts.