The Department of Health and Family Welfare has decided to issue a direction to the arecanut cultivators in areas affected by Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) to get migrant workers vaccinated.
Five positive cases of the disease have been reported in Tirthahalli taluk since January 1. This includes two migrant workers, one from Tarikere and another person from Assam. They were hired for arecanut harvesting in a plantation in Sindhuwadi village in Mandagadde Grama Panchayat limits.
The officials of the Department of Health and Family Welfare have said the plantation was located in the forest fringe in Sindhuwadi where they have come to contact with the ticks that spread the disease from monkeys to humans.
The workers arrived in Sindhuwadi in third week of December. The locals here were vaccinated against the disease. However, as the personnel from the department in charge of vaccination were not aware about the presence of the migrant workers in the village, they could not be covered under the vaccination drive.
In the wake of the incident, the department has decided to issue direction to the arecanut cultivators in the affected areas to take measures to ensure that the migrant workers in their plantations get vaccinated against KFD. The cooperation of Department of Horticulture and local gram panchayat will also be taken to reach out to the plantation workers.
Since January 1, as many as seven positive cases of KFD were reported in the district of which one person has died. The health condition of the remaining six patients is being closely monitored.
Meanwhile, blood sample of a woman from Hagare village in Sagar taluk, who was hospitalised on Monday with high fever and pain in the joins, has tested negative for KFD.
