Number of affected rises to 270 in 4 districts
Local doctors suspect 16 people were infected with anthrax in Bilgathua, a village in Kushtia on Friday raising the number of patients in four districts to 270, since it was first reported from a village in Sirajganj on august 19.
Bilgathua is in Pragpur union in Daulatpur upazila of the district.
On Thursday, 21 anthrax patients were diagnosed with anthrax in Dharmadaha, an adjacent village, said the director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Diseases Control and Research, Mahmudur Rahman.
He, however, said that the IEDCR got no report of fresh infection from anywhere in the country on Friday.
New Age correspondent in Kushtia reports, diagnosed by local doctors the patients in Bilgathua were yet to undergo laboratory tests.
Mahmudur Rahman said that the IEDCR had stopped testing samples with the number of patients rising.
The patients diagnosed by district health officials, he said, would get all treatment.
He said that there was no need to test all the samples.
The patients, he said, could be easily diagnosed by symptoms and by ascertaining whether or not they had a history of coming in contact with affected cattle.
Mahmudur Rahman said that 14 people were diagnosed with the disease in Ghatail upazila in Tangail, 53 in Shahjadpur upazila, 52 in Belkuchi upazila and 69 in Khamarkhand upazila in Sirajganj district, and one in Bera upazila, 27 in Shathia upazila and 17 in Faridpur upazila in Pabna district.
The infected patients, he said, were under treatment and physicians were following them up.
‘The patients, detected early are almost cured,’ he said.
But he said that the patients with aggravated infection need more time to cure.
Local doctors first detected 26 anthrax patients in Chithulia, a village in Shahzadpur upazila in Sirajganj on Aug 19.
The disease subsequently spread to adjacent districts of Pabna and Tangail.
