900 suffering from fever, bird flu ruled out
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A mystery fever has afflicted about 900 people in a large slum on the
outskirts of this steel city [the newswire starts with Rourkela (Orissa) -
Mod.MPP], but health authorities have ruled out the possibility of bird
flu. Panic gripped the area, known as Panposh basti, which is home to 2000
families, as hundreds of people were hit by the fever over the last 2 days.
Sundargarh chief district medical officer Dr Premananda Pattnaik said the
fever was not bird flu, and health department personnel had already
examined 241 blood samples, which indicated that the fever was caused by an
airborne virus. Some of the slides had indicated malaria, he said.
41 of the affected people had been admitted to the Rourkela government
hospital since yesterday [28 Feb 2006]. The rest were treated as outdoor
patients. A team of physicians from the VSS Medical College Hospital from
Burla will be at Panposh to take stock of the situation.
Pattnaik said a team of doctors and paramedical personnel from the district
headquarters hospital at Sundargarh were already working at the basti and
making a door-to-door surveillance.
In Bhubaneswar, state health secretary R N Senapati said the government was
looking into the situation, and doctors' teams were being sent to find the
reason behind the outbreak of the fever.
[In the absence of information on other symptoms associated with this
outbreak, it would be very hazardous to attempt a differential diagnosis
here based on the solitary symptom of "fever". The mention that blood tests
have revealed an "airborne virus" obviously leads to the question "which
(or what) airborne virus?" There is mention that malaria (a parasitic
disease, not a viral illness) was confirmed in some of the cases, but it is
also suggested that the majority of these cases were not due to malaria.
One infers that the illness is relatively mild, as only 41 out of an
estimated 900 ill individuals (4.6 per cent) required hospitalization.
Musing out loud, one wonders if chikungunya has been considered in the
diagnostic panel, as it seems to be a significant year for chikungunya
virus activity in the Indian Ocean, and it's been identified elsewhere in
India this year (2006) as well (see below). As for justifying it as "an
airborne virus", mosquitoes do fly ... That being said, more information on
the above mentioned outbreak would be appreciated. - Mod.MPP]
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