WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: After creating much havoc in Goa, the Monkey Fever
(Kyasanoor Forest Disease (KFD) is now being wide spread in the neighbouring
Maharashtra.
The KFD, which was originally detected in Kyasanoor forest
of Shimoga in Karnataka, has been present all along the Western Ghat striking
on the farmers of Goa, Kerala and now Maharashtra.
“The rate of KFD
patients from Sattari has decreased but GMC and the district hospital at Mapusa
are increasingly getting the patients from neighbouring Maharashtra,” a senior
official from Directorate of Health Services told Herald confirming that the
disease has spread further in the Western Ghat.
The virus was carried from Monkey to human by ticks. In the
year 2015-16, three deaths were reported while 267 positive cases were detected
forcing Goa government to initiate mass programme of vaccination to the
vulnerable people. More than 8,000 people were covered under the vaccination
drive.
Virologist working with Manipal University’s Centre for
Virus Research G Arun Kumar said that the farmers from Maharashtra are now
being diagnosed with the disease. Kumar said that this disease which was
reported in 1957 in Shimoga has been prevalent in Maharashtra too.
, but was never detected in absence of the mechanism to diagnose the blood samples of the victim farmers.
