KFD claims 2nd life in Uttara Kannada in a week
Monkey fever (KFD) claims a second life in Uttara Kannada district, bringing the total deaths to four. The virus is rapidly spreading, with over 1,000 cases reported in the northern region. No vaccines available; rest at home advised for recovery.
Belagavi The kyasanur forest disease (KFD) known as monkey fever claims second life in Siddapur taluk of Uttara Kannada (Karwar) district within a week, according to the district health department. With this, the total number of people dying because of the disease since January has reached to four.
The recent victim was a 60-year-old woman from Korlakye. She succumbed to her condition at a government hospital in Shivamogga on Sunday night. Before that she was undergoing treatment at Manipal hospital in Manipal for four days, Uttar Kannada district health officer (DHO) Dr NV Neeraj said.
“KFD broke out in the district in November last year. The taluk has 43 infected people and majority of them are children,” the health official said.
Official said, the northern region of the state has been hit badly for the first time, Siddapur, Yellapur, Dandeli and Haliyal taluks in Uttara Kannada and Khanapur and partially Belagavi taluk in Belagavi, Shivamogga and Chikkamagaluru districts, which are enriched with thick forest, witness the forest related infections every summer. However, the KFD infection has expanded this year has also hit to the non-forest areas of north Karnataka.
The commissioner of state health department Randeep said in a department meeting that “There are no more vaccines to KFD.”
He appealed to people to utter measures from getting infected to the virus. He said the production of vaccine would be commenced shortly and the infected districts would be supplied during 2025 summer.
“The stock of the vaccine available was finished after it was distributed to the forest regions in Mysuru two months ago where the KFD broke out,” Randeep said.
Based on the commissioner’s information, primary and high school education minister Madhu Bangarappa has instructed the education department to grant compulsorily leave for a minimum of 10 days to the infected children and asked the school heads to advised parents not to send their infected children out from the house.
Since no vaccine is available with the health department, Dr Neeraj said, “Only resting at home is the easy and the best available remedy where the infected can be cured fast. Sleeping is the ultimate medicine to the infection,” the doctor advised.
According to a NGO working toward the health sector said, KFD is rapidly spreading but the government is providing false report to the nation.
“The number of actual infected is many folds more than the data provided by the government,” said the head of an NGO said.
The organisation claimed that over a 1,000 people have been infected with issues in northern region mainly where “tribals” reside.
“Those who live inside the deep jungle even don’t know anything about the monkey fever,” the official said.
“We conducted the ground survey in about a dozen taluks of this region and found over a hundred infected people in every taluk,” the official said, adding that it has proofs of doctors attending to the KFD patients.
“The information about vaccine provided by the commissioner of health department is the best example how the government is seriously attending to the matter,” said the NGO head.
The virus also broke out in urban Belagavi where the number of infected crossed 500. Belagavi DHO Dr Mahesh Koni said, “At least a 100 people are getting infected everyday, while the same number have recovered after five days of proper rest,” Dr Koni said.
However, Uttara Kannada deputy commissioner Gangubayi Manakar told media that though the district is hit badly with KFD, it is under control as those infected were insolated at homes.
“The health department is announcing in every hamlet that rest is the best remedy for the infection,” added the official.
