Alert sounded on scrub typhus in three districts of Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh) : Health department has issued an alert in Madhya Pradesh regarding scrub typhus after a few cases were reported from some districts. At present, the alert has been sounded for 3 districts - Jabalpur, Satna and Khargone.

Dr Himanshu Jaiswar, deputy director health, said, “Alert has been issued for scrub typhus in the state. Districts from Vindhya, Bundelkhand and other regions have reported a few cases and so the health department is not taking any chances and has issued an alert.” The Regional Director of Jabalpur division, Dr Sanjay Mishra issued an alert regarding scrub typhus directing the health officials to spread public awareness related to the disease. The risk of scrub typhus continues to haunt Satna, Jabalpur and Mandsaur as last year maximum patients of disease were reported from these districts.

To prevent the growth of scrub typhus, the Directorate of Medical and Health Department has decided to run a research project in these 3 districts with help of All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhopal.

Scrub typhus spreads to people through bites of infected chiggers (larval mites). According to doctors, symptoms of scrub typhus start developing after 6-21 days of the bite by tick worm. The common symptoms of scrub typhus include high fever, chills, headache, body aches, and sometimes rash, according to doctors.The skin also starts turning black after the worm bite and soon blisters develop.