Bengaluru: A total of nine deaths due to Kyatasandra Forest Disease, also known as monkey fever, has been reported in Shivamogga district since it broke out there in December 2018, the Karnataka health department said Friday Releasing the data, the department said 100 positive cases had been identified in the district since 24 December, 2018, of whom nine had died.
This apart, 120 monkeys too died of the disease, including eight on Friday in Shivamogga, it said. A health officer said 20,362 people have been vaccinated till date, including 208 on Friday.
“We are carrying out field surveillance and have so far surveyed 374 villages, he said. Shivamogga District Surveillance Officer Dr B S Shankarappa had Thursday allayed fears, saying early diagnosis was the key to control KFD, a tick-borne viral hemorrhagic fever endemic to South Asia, and that people with poor immunity level might be more susceptible to it. Since the disease is caused by tick, the district authorities were distributing insect repellent. Besides, a vaccination drive was also underway,” the DSO had said.
The virus spreads through parasitic ticks which latch on to monkeys and is transmitted to human through tick bites. It was first reported in the country from Kyasanur forests in Shivamogga district in 1957 and hence came to be known as KFD. The KFD infection, which starts with high fever and body ache, results in hemorrhage, similar to that in dengue.
Meanwhile, the district health officer in Mysuru denied that two deaths reported in the district were of monkey fever. he said the deaths were reported from a village bordering Kerala and added that their investigation revealed that one of them had died of suspected brain haemorrhage and the other of pneumonia.