A woman on Sunday morning died of leptospirosis, also known as ‘rat fever', in the flood-battered Kerala.
The number of leptospirosis cases in Kerala continues to rise with the disease claiming as many as 15 lives in the state recovering from large-scale floods.
A woman on Sunday morning died of leptospirosis, also known as ‘rat fever', in the flood-battered state, according to officials at the Kozhikode Medical College hospital.
IANS reported that this was 15th known death due to the disease after floods.
Health Minister KK Shailaja said that the authorities are taking all steps and there was no need to panic.
"Every hospital is stocked with all the required medicines," Ms Shailaja said, assuring that the health department had taken all the necessary actions.
In the past two days alone, eight people have died due to the disease. The risk of leptospirosis, which transmits from animals to humans, is high during flooding. Kerala had reported 520 cases and 28 deaths between January and July this year.
After the floods that claimed over 300 lives in Kerala, there is a spurt in the number of cases of leptospirosis in the flood-affected districts.
The Directorate of Health Services has issued a leptospirosis alert after over 150 cases were reported in the flood-hit districts in the last few days due to the disease.
After the surfacing of leptospirosis cases in the flood-hit districts of Palakkad, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Kannur, the public health department sounded an alert on August 28 to the doctors.
“There is a sudden increase of Leptospirosis from Thrissur, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Kannur districts. All of them had indirect contact with flood water. You may take this situation very seriously and alert the entire clinical team of your district. Any fever with myalgia to be taken as Leptospirosis and to be treated accordingly until further orders,” the alert said.
In 2017 alone, there were 1408 confirmed cases of leptospirosis reported in the state of Kerala, of which there were 80 deaths reported. In 2016, there were 1710 cases confirmed of which 35 succumbed to the infection.
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