Death of children due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) continues unabated in Malkangiri as the vector-borne disease claimed lives of three more kids in the district on Thursday.
The day’s deceased were identified as Rasmita Kape (2) of Dungapala village under Khairput block, Sangita Khamari (3) of Telerai village under Kalimela block and Jamuna Sarkar (3) of MV-107 under Kalimela block.
All of them died while undergoing treatment at the District Headquarters Hospital.
With this, the death toll in the disease mounted to 87 in 56 days in the district.
Moreover, a 20-year-old girl was detected for JE positive, raising an alarm in the district where only children between the age group of 1-15 were the victims of the disease so far.
Meanwhile, Health Department has formed a six-member expert team to study the reasons behind the disease and find out preventive measure to contain it. The team was formed after the Health Secretary held a discussion with experts of the Regional Medicine Research Centre (RMRC) and also researchers who have worked in different parts of the country where JE surfaced.
The team would visit Malkangiri on Friday.
In another development, the Malkangiri police administration reportedly denied permission to senior BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmandra Pradhan to visit the district citing security reasons.
Sources said the police administration expressed its inability to provide security cover to the Union Minister keeping in view the 24-hour bandh called by Maoists protesting the encounter with security forces in Malkangiri district.
Notably, Pradhan had decided to visit Malakngiri to take stock of the JE situation there on Friday.