Seven children have lost their lives and about 100 have fallen ill in some villages of the tribal community in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district in about 45 days, due to an outbreak of monsoon related diseases while suffering skin infections, officials said, even as they flagged lack of accessibility in remote areas and the community’s reliance on ritualistic healing.
The authorities have also collected blood samples from patients and sent them to ICMR-National Institute of Research in Bacterial Infections, Kolkata, and the ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, to check for the exact cause of the outbreak. Whereas, a team from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College, Jabalpur, is also investigating the situation. Mr.
“We have deployed ambulances in some villages so that kids can be immediately shifted to the district hospital if needed. About five villages of the Baiga tribe have reported 100 cases of malaria, typhoid, viral infections and skin infections among children aged between one and 13 years since June, showing symptoms like high fever, stomach infection, and rashes and spots on their bodies, according to officials. The villages are Bondari, Adori, Machhurda, Korka and Kundekasa in Baihar tehsil, about 85 kilometres from the district hospital. Additional Collector, Balaghat, Abhishek Saraf told The Hindu that 24 children are currently under treatment at district and civil hospitals while 76 children have recovered so far.
Saraf said that special health camps have been setup in the villages to provide early treatment to children and door-to-door screenings are being conducted to check for new cases by deploying ASHA and ANM workers, and special medical teams for diseases like malaria and typhoid. “We have deployed a team led by a medical officer for each village who will assess the situation and decide if a patient needs to be admitted to the civil or district hospital,” he said. People from the community often reach out to faith healers when someone falls sick and think that they will go to hospital once the condition is a little better,” he said.
