In HP, 7 die of scrub typhus in a week, 830 test positive

SHIMLA : Even as the monsoon is retreating, scrub typhus scare is haunting the hill state as four people have died of the disease in the last two days. Two deaths were reported in last two days at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla.

Seven people died of scrub typhus in the state in the past one week.

A total of 20 people have died, including 16 at the IGMC, while 830 people have tested positive across the state.

Of these, 360 were found positive at the IGMC. Savitri Devi, 19, succumbed to scrub typhus on Thursday, while 48-year-old Dev Raj died on Friday. The disease spreads through bites of infected chiggers (larval mites) and its common symptoms are fever, headache, body aches and rash.

Dr Ramesh Chand, senior medical superintendent, IGMC, said both patients were admitted in IGMC in critical stage. “They were quite sick and admitted in later stage of the disease. Another doctor said that all those who succumbed to scrub typhus in IGMC were brought at a later stage.

“Had they been admitted at an earlier stage, we could have saved them,” a senior doctor of the medicine department told HT, requesting anonymity. He said none of them, who succumbed to the disease, were prescribed Doxycycline, a medicine advised in high grade fever.

Baldev Thakur, director health services said, “Though the number is less than that of last year but the department is trying to aware more and more people about the disease,” he said. He added that doctors in the field have been directions and asked to follow them strictly.