When outbreaks of swine flu and dengue is staring at the State, the revelation is that Odisha for the first time in last 13 years had recorded its highest-ever disease outbreaks in the year 2016. The scenario persisted undauntedly as from January to June 2017, Odisha has recorded over 50 outbreaks, which is almost 62 per cent of the total tally the State had recorded in the full year of 2015 and 2014.
According to data available with the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) Centre here, when Odisha had recorded the highest of 186 outbreaks in 2016, during January - June, 2017, the State had recorded over 50 such disease outbreaks vis-à-vis only 81 and 87 outbreaks in full year of 2015 and 2014, respectively.
When Acute Diarrheal Disease (ADD), viral fever with rashes, anthrax, food poisoning, enteric fever and viral hepatitis constituted the major outbreaks during the first 6-month period of 2017, the notable fact is 2016 had not reported any outbreak of enteric fever in the State. Moreover, outbreaks of ADD and viral hepatitis have increased in 2017 vis-à-vis 2016.
Though Odisha didn’t record any cases of only two diseases like Chikungunya and leptospirosis till date in 2017, outbreaks of acute diarrhoeal cases were on the rise. For instance, Odisha had 27 ADD outbreaks in 2015 that rose to 69 in 2016. The ADD cases on an average in 2017 per month touched around 73,000 against over 64,000 in 2016.
Similarly, viral hepatitis outbreaks increased from 11 in 2015 to 17 in 2016. Viral hepatitis cases in first six months of 2017 were on an average over 800 vis-à-vis around 450 cases per month in 2016. Outbreaks of diseases like chickenpox, measles, viral fever with rashes, jaundice and anthrax have become a regular feature in Odisha. Recurrence of such outbreaks in a particular area or community over the years reveals lack of effective remedial measures undertaken by the State administration to ease disease burden on people.
A district wise outbreak analysis in 2017 reveals that only 8 districts have accounted for over 50 outbreaks, and in 2016 around 10 districts accounted for 186 outbreaks.
The sorry state of health scenario is reflected when State’s headquarters district Khordha accounted for nearly 20 per cent of outbreaks in 2017. Recently, shigellosis outbreak was noticed in Khurda district. Shigellosis is an intestinal disease caused by bacteria shigella, which results in bloody diarrhoea. Besides, measles and food poisoning outbreaks have been a regular feature of the district for years. Similarly, Kalahandi recorded acute viral hepatitis outbreak, Balangir records ADD and viral hepatitis, Koraput repeatedly noticed outbreaks of chickenpox, ADD and anthrax over the years. Deogarh and Rayagada witnessed outbreaks of viral fever with rashes but not dengue.
Though dengue and swine flu cases are on ascent in the State now, the fact of consolation is both diseases have not occurred in any particular area or community so as to be labelled as an outbreak.