Lakhpat: Mysterious ‘fever’ kills 12 in 4 days in Gujarat | Rajkot News

RAJKOT: Days after the area was battered by heavy rain and flooding, a cluster of 12 deaths in four days at six villages in Lakhpat taluka of Kutch from an undiagnosed fever, has led the state administration to dispatch additional healthcare resources to the area.
As the deaths have been reported in one particular community of animal rearers, animal husbandry department team have also been pressed in to rule out any contamination from animals.
“Special health teams have been sent to the affected area. At this state, it appears to be non-communicable as those affected primarily displayed influenza-like and pneumonitis symptoms. More doctors have been deployed at the CHCs there to deal with OPD cases,” Kutch collector Amit Arora said.
“The Rapid Response Team (RRT) from Rajkot has been deployed as well as the state-level RRT comprising epidemiologists etc,” Arora added.
Meenaba Jadeja, member of the Kutch district panchayat from the Pandhro seat, in a letter claimed that 12 people in the 5-50 age group died between September 3 and 9 due to the fever in Bekhda, Sandhro, Morgar and Bharavandh villages.
“Of the 12 deaths on the list from the district panchayat member, 10 were to have been from pneumonitis. We have received confirmation for five of these deaths from the Rajkot RRT, while the reports of five are awaited,” Arora later told TOI.
“People with fever were first admitted at a private hospital and then taken to Dayapar CHC and finally to Bhuj General Hospital. One patient was moved to Ahmedabad. They died without recovering from the fever,” former Lakhpat panchayat member Hussain Rayma said.
Residents of the area said the patients had fever, cold, cough, pneumonia and were having difficulty breathing. Another district panchayat member, Mamad Jung Jat, said doctors had not been able to make an accurate diagnosis of the disease.
State health minister Rushikesh Patel said in an interview that twelve deaths were reported in the last four days and a team of experts from Rajkot PDU Medical College and Gujarat Adani Medical College in Bhuj had been sent to the site by the health department.
“A report will be submitted to the state govt within two days after conducting surveillance at the site. After the report is submitted, we will know how the deaths occurred and the necessary measures for it will be taken,” Patel had said.