Kolkata:  After dengue and malaria, the city is facing the menace of Japanese encephalitis (JE) which has already claimed a life in the southern outskirts of the metropolis.

The death, caused by a mosquito-borne virus that affects the nervous system, has been confirmed as JE following blood and spinal fluid tests, health department sources said here today.

The victim, identified as P Chowdhury of Behala area, died of the disease on Thursday at the School of Tropical Medicine, according to Kolkata Municipal Corporation s MiC (Health) Subodh De.

Admitting lack of precautionary steps on the part of the civic body in containing spread of larvael growth following the Monsoon, De said that two malarial and two dengue deaths had taken place in the metropolis recently.

JE, according to scientists, is spread by mosquitoes in areas of cultivation and where pigs are reared.

The symptoms of the disease are fever, chill, headache, nausea and high temperature within six days and the infection spreading to the brain. It is fatal in 30 per cent cases.

The civic body has undertaken fogging operations in the affected areas, but admitted that it has no mechanism to diagnose Japanese encephalitis.
Source : PTI