Thursday, April 3, 2008

Meningitis leaves 30 dead in Meghalaya

At least 30 people have died due to meningitis in Garo Hills areas, official sources today said.

The disease has spread to Rongjeng, Songsak, Mansang, Dagal and Samanda areas of Garo Hills with approximately 30 deaths reported by the District Medical and Health Officer of East Garo Hills over the past three weeks.

An unspecified number of patients have been admitted to various hospitals in the district. The state health department has intensified surveillance and arranged mass treatment for people in the affected areas.

A Rapid Response Team, which is camping at Garo Hills, has visited the affected areas and blood samples have been collected and despatched to the Pasteur Institute, Shillong for testing. Samples have been also sent to the National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD), New Delhi for identification of the specific bacteria.

The sources also said the surveillance teams have been instructed to send the samples to Delhi daily and monitor the feedback and confirmation reports.