India deploys joint outbreak response team as Chandipura virus spreads in Gujarat, Rajasthan
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The Chandipura virus outbreak
Centre has deployed a National Joint Outbreak Response Team to Gujarat and Rajasthan as the Chandipura virus outbreak claims 22 children in Gujarat. CHPV, spread by sandflies, mainly affects children and can cause fatal encephalitis. There is no approved vaccine, experts warn.
The Indian government's health ministry on Wednesday (Aug 5) deployed a National Joint Outbreak Response Team (NJORT) to Gujarat and Rajasthan to strengthen the response to the ongoing Chandipura Virus Disease (CHPV) outbreak, which has claimed lives of at least 22 children in
the state. The Centre has also stepped up disease surveillance, scientific investigations and testing in the affected districts to better understand and contain the outbreak, the ministry said in a statement. Further, the statement added that the team will supplement the efforts of the two state governments in outbreak investigation, epidemiological assessment, clinical management, laboratory coordination, vector surveillance, and implementation of public health measures. Centre also said that its team will work closely with the state health departments to review the on-ground response and submit recommendations to the ministry after completing its field assessment, officials said.
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What is Chandipura virus?
The name of the virus - Chandipura vesiculovirus (CHPV) - comes from a village in Maharashtra, where the first case of this infection was diagnosed in 1965. It is an RNA virus. The pathogen is a member of the Vesiculovirus genus of the family Rhabdoviridae. The virus causes fever and symptoms that are similar to flu and acute encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). It is transmitted by vectors like mosquitoes, ticks and sandflies. Experts have noted that the primary vectors are sandflies, which can live in cracks in walls and in portions of mud- or sand-built dwellings. The primary targets of this virus are children between the ages of 9 months and 14 years.
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What expert said?
Doctors said that children are more susceptible and the risk increases in the rainy season. She confirmed that there is currently no approved vaccine available to prevent Chandipura Virus (CHPV) infection. She weighed in on the symptoms and said, “This virus initially causes fever, vomiting, loose motion, and other viral-like symptoms, but in addition, it also causes swelling in the brain called encephalitis, leading toconvulsions, altered sensorium, delusion, unconsciousness episodes and seizures.” "So all these symptoms can be there because of the involvement of the brain with this virus," she explained. Notably, the virus does not transfer from person to person and is not contagious.
