India : Monkey disease strikes again in Honnavar, one dies

Article via Sahil Online, excerpt :

" Honnavar: Kyasnoor Forest Disease (KFD), commonly known as monkey disease, has surfaced in Honnavar taluk again after a gap of five years.

Inus Miranda (21), a resident of Saralagi village in the taluk, died of the disease in Wenlock Hospital in Mangalore, where he was admitted recently. Even his mother Santan Miranda has been suffering from the disease. Her blood sample tested positive for the disease, according to Dr Vaishali Niak medical officer in charge of KFD unit at Honnavar Santan Miranda has been undergoing treatment in the hospital, Naik said.

Of the four persons admitted to the hospital at Honnavar for high fever this month, two tested positive for KFD and two for dengue, it is stated.

Since no cases of KFD were reported for the past five years, the health department had stopped KFD vaccinated in the villages. But now action is being taken to prevent the spread of the disease, sources said. Nearly 400 people within a five km radius of Saralagi village have been vaccinated against the disease so far.

First detected in Kyasnoor forest region of Sagar taluk in Shimoga district in March 1955 after the large scale death of monkeys, KFD a viral disease spread rapidly to other neighbouring district including Uttara Kannada Udupi and Chikmagalur over the years."