Every year, between November and May, the Karnataka government and its health infrastructure braces itself to respond to the Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), also known as ‘Monkey Fever’.
The Nodal Officer for KFD in Karnataka, Dr Kiran told TNM on Wednesday that 97 cases of monkey fever have been reported in the state. The worst affected region is Thirthahalli taluk in Shivamogga district, where 68 cases have been reported. Thirthahalli is infamous for its repeated outbreaks of KFD, year after year. Sagar is the next worst-hit region, with 15 cases reported. The remaining 14 cases are from other taluks in Shivamogga and Dakshina Kannada districts.
The popular name 'monkey fever' comes from the fact that the virus is transmitted from monkeys to humans, through vectors such as ticks, mosquitoes and fleas. People in rural areas of Karnataka are often exposed to the insects as part of their work, and are at risk of getting infected with the disease.
Dr Kiran said that all the 97 patients tested positive are being monitored. Those with high viral load are being shifted to the hospital.
He said that since it is a virus, the disease gets aggravated when there are other complications. A patient in Manipal, for example, is currently in the ICU with KFD and is also recovering from a surgery in his kidneys.
The Hindu reported on Tuesday that there was a suspected death from KFD in Sagar taluk, as the person died with symptoms of the disease in the KFD endemic area. However, officials said that the deceased's sample had come back negative, and it is likely that he died due to excessive alcoholism. "If we were given a chance to conduct a post-mortem, we might have been able to find out the exact cause of death. However, his blood sample came back negative for KFD," Dr Kiran said.
The first few cases of the KFD season were reported by TNM in January this year. There were two confirmed cases of the disease in Shivamogga, even though the local health authorities had taken it upon themselves to vaccinate the local population against the disease. They were admitted in hospital after they were diagnosed with KFD.
The Kyasanur Forest Disease was discovered in 1957 and there is a vaccine. So why is the disease continuing to make headlines in Karnataka?
Dr Kiran said that the health department had worked hard to administer the vaccine to the local population, yet there was hesitation among them to get vaccinated. "Most of the time, the people are supposed to come to the health centre to get vaccinated. However, taking into consideration the seriousness of the disease, we went door-to-door to administer the vaccine. Since many of the people go to work by 10 am, we used to begin knocking on their doors at 7 am."
In the neighbouring state of Kerala, the district of Wayanad has begun seeing cases of KFD. Health officials in the state have recently begun asking for thousands of vials of the vaccine for people in Wayanad.
However, Karnataka health workers said they are finding it hard to contain the spread of the disease, without support from the local population. Even though they are happy to bring their children in for timely vaccinations, they hesitate to take vaccinations for themselves, Dr Kiran said.
"We usually see this when it comes to adult vaccinations. They are often afraid of injections and would rather flee to avoid taking the vaccinations. In fact, the two deaths reported in January this year were because they refused to take the vaccination," Dr Kiran added.