Climate change

And

Japanese Encephalitis

An 11 year old Class V student of Catholic School Canchipur Baby Lalrilu was sick and hospitalized at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences(RIMS) Hospital in India’s Northeastern state of Manipur on June 27 following complaints of high fever and losing consciousness.

Unfortunately Baby Lalrilu, the one and only daughter of a young Rongmei widow Luma, 39 a resident of Langthabal Chingkhong village in Imphal West district, passed away the following day.

The family of the child including Grandmother Pantiguru was not aware of the cause of the death. “We still don’t know what kind of disease had attacked our grandchild,” Pantiguru said.

The family and state health officials remain clueless about the fatal disease until Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh and National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi confirmed her as one of the victims of the Japanese Encephalitis outbreak in the state.

A day later, another baby girl Fankiya aged 6 years old of Lilong Tureal Ahanbi village in Thoubal district also died three days after her hospitalization due to symptoms similar to those of Lalrilu.

Last year Baby Fankiya’s locality had witnessed an outbreak of an unknown disease. “One 12 year old girl and a 28 year old boy were hospitalized due to an unknown disease last year,” Fankiya’s father Fariduddin recalled.

Even though the victims of the epidemic were mostly young children, a visit to another victim Haobijam Mema aged 45 at Sawombung Wairi-Khundrakpam village in Imphal East district indicates that adults are also prone to this disease.

Likewise as many as 34 persons were officially reported to have expired in Manipur due to suspected Japanese Encephalitis within a span of barely one month (July). Most of the victims, including the first three victims namely M Sanathoi of Irengbam village, Salam Naocha of Loktak project and Bharat of Kangpokpi, live in the periphery of rice fields.

The State Malaria Office however claimed that the actual death toll of the Japanese Encephalitis epidemic was just 9 while around 60 suspects were given symptomatic treatment though Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) epidemic had claimed 15 lives during the outbreak.

Even if the disease was cyclical in it’s appearance, no Japanese Encephalitis cases were reported in 2005 and 2006. However, the state had recorded a single case in 2007 followed by 4 other suspected cases in 2008. Last year, there were around 64 suspected cases, but there is no report of any casualty due to the epidemic unlike in the current year.

The overall situation of the state has shown a substantial increase in total malaria cases from 708 to 1069 (51 percent) in 2009 as compared to the same period in 2008. Interestingly in order to avoid Malaria, the state malaria office had distributed 3,09,718 mosquito nets treated with insecticides last year.

It was quite a surprise to hear of how the dreaded epidemic suddenly appeared in a traditionally pleasant place like Manipur. “Manipur is no longer a pleasant or cold place,” Kh Meghachandra, Officer in Charge of Meteorological (MET) Office, Imphal said.

Unlike in the last decade, summer is refusing to end in Manipur. Manipur recorded actual rainfall of 594.7 mm during last year’s monsoon against this year’s rainfall of 801.1 mm. In the 2008 monsoon, the state recorded rainfall of 625.3 mm.

Although the state experienced drought last year, it seemed that it has had enough rain this year. This year’s early monsoon helps the entire germination process of the state’s paddy across it’s 1.68 lakh hectares of rice cultivable land out of the state’s 1.90 lakh hectares of agricultural land.

As a result, most of the rice fields of the state have enough stagnant water which serves as breeding grounds for culex, a breed of mosquito that spreads Japanese Encephalitis. “So the chances of the outbreak of the disease is very high if there is an early monsoon,” Y Krishna, Entomologist of the State Malaria Office said.

Sharing a similar sentiment, T Kamini, a Biologist at the State Malaria Control Office said that the population of the culex mosquito could be increased when the stagnant water submerges the paddy plants grown in the fields. The mosquitoes from the nearby rice fields must have bitten the villagers and spread the disease, a senior official at State Health Services Directorate in Manipur observed. The climate change would be the major factor for the outbreak of the epidemic this year.

Besides global warming and climate change, the mushrooming of piggeries in rural and urban Manipur is another factor for the sudden rise of population of culex as pigs are one of it’s host animals, according to a senior researcher at the Department of Bio-technology in Manipur University. “However no study or investigation has been done so far,” he said.

The busy state health officials have launched a massive vaccination programme with a target to vaccinate 5.92 lakh children (below 15 years) with SA14-14-2 in the state’s 5 districts.

A decade back, in Imphal, the capital city of Manipur, the maximum temperature was about 30 to 33 degree celsius. However, this has risen to 35/36 degree celsius since last year. “This indicates that Manipur is warming-up. This may directly or indirectly be related to climate change and global warming,” the MET official said.

Though this kind of mosquito can’t survive in temperatures below 16 degree celsius, they are very active in warm temperature ranging from 20-30 degree celsius, the Biologists explained. The global warming affects insects and pests, mosquitoes have migrated to higher altitude and have adapted there. This means that there will be more and more cases of mosquito related diseases where never heard of.

Even the hill dwellers in Manipur’s Ukhrul district headquarter, 84 kms north-east of the state capital Imphal have started to use mosquito nets for the last two years. “We’ve been using it (bed nets) to protect ourselves from mosquito bites since last year,” AS Haorela, a housewife from Ukhrul town said. “Earlier we never used these. But now some of the families have even started using ceiling fans.” This proves that a hill station such as Ukhrul is no longer the cold place it used to be. It is now clear that global warming is right here.