Mystery disease: Assam seeks report from WB Govt

GUWAHATI, February 26: The State Government today sought a detailed report from the West Bengal government on the mysterious disease that took the lives of a number of people including two doctors in the Siliguri area. The State Health Minister, Kamala Kalita told this correspondent here this evening that the West Bengal Government has been requested to provide the details of the disease including the steps taken to control the disease. Kalita today reviewed the situation in the state in a meeting with the senior officials including the health secretary and director of Health Services. Talking to this correspondent after the meeting, Kalita said that no such incident of the mysterious disease has been reported from any part of the State. The Health Minister said that earlier the disease was suspected to be plague and preventive measures were taken to tackle the disease. "But now it is almost sure that the disease was not plague. Now it is suspected that a viral disease hit Siliguri but the unfortunate part is that till date we do not know what type of virus caused the disease or what is the carrier. If we know about the carrier, it is easy to take preventive measures," Kalita added. He also pointed out that the disease is believed to be highly infectious as even a few doctors were killed by the dreaded disease. On the steps taken as preventive measures, the Health Minister revealed that the Health Department has instructed the district health offices and hospitals to keep adequate stock of saline and other medicine to control high fever. He said that the doctors have been instructed to hospitalise any patient with high fever. The Health Minister also said that there is no reason for panic as the disease has not been reported from any part of the State. He also appealed to all sections of people not to pay heed to any rumour about the disease. PTI adds: The Centre is planning to seek US' help in identification of the mysterious organism which has caused a fever outbreak in Siliguri, which has killed 35 people so far, Health Minister C P Thakur said today. Even after three weeks of the first appearance of the disease, health authorities are unable to diagnose it, he told reporters here. He did not rule out the chances of its originating from biological warfare. "Experts so far are not sure on what kind of a fever it is and what has caused it," he said.