Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Nov 14: At a time when malaria, dengue and coronavirus infection cases have been showing a steady declining trend, rat fever cases are rising. Between January and September this year, 173 rat ever cases were reported. 85 of them were from Udupi taluk, 54 from Kundapur taluk and 34 from Karkala taluk. Till October end, 203 such cases were detected.

In January 559 people were tested, and 24 showed symptoms of this fever. As many as 26 people were infected in February, 23 more in March, five in May, 11 in June, 32 in July and 25 in August. In September, the highest number of 34 cases were reported. Among them, 17 were from Udupi taluk with 11 cases from Kundapur and six from Karkala suffering from this fever. In 2018, 330 cases were found and 344 in 2019. Compared to these two years, however, the cases this time are much less.

 This fever normally spreads through the urine and stools of the rats. Usually, farmers who visit the fields for harvesting paddy crops get infected. During the four months of lockdown, the cases were minimal.

Dakshina Kannada

The district reported 111 rat fever cases from January till now. A death also occurred due to rat fever in August. As people avoided going out because of the coronavirus pandemic, cases seem to have fallen sharply. Moreover, when the ASHA workers visited houses to create awareness about coronavirus, they also talked about dengue and rat fever. District surveillance officer, Dr Jagadish K, feels that this would have resulted in a steep fall in the cases.

Precautions

Water should be consumed after boiling. People should not take bath in standing water as excreta and urine of animals might have contaminated that water. Care should be taken to ensure that food items, fruits, vegetables etc are not accessible to rats. All holes, cracks etc in houses, godowns, drains, fields etc should be sealed to destroy the rats and carcasses of rats should be properly disposed of. It is better if gum boots are worn when visiting farms, cattle sheds, agricultural fields etc. If someone works in slush or standing water, they should take bath in hot water.

Dr Sudhir Chandra Sooda, Udupi district health officer, says that fever occurs when viruses from the discharges of rats enter the human body. Rat fever should be treated at its initial stage. Enough stock of medicines for rat fever is available in all the primary health centres, he says. Udupi district has not witnessed any death due to this disease, he mentioned.