74-yr-old woman dies of monkey fever in Karnataka's Honnavar taluk

Honnavar, Uttara Kannada district: A 74-year-old woman succumbed to monkey fever, also known as Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), at Haladipur in the taluk on Friday, taking the KFD death toll to two in the taluk. 

Nani Hammanna Gouda, a resident of the fish market in the town, was diagnosed with monkey fever two days back.

According to the health department, “The woman used to collect dry leaves at the monkey fever-hit Janakadkal forest. Nani Gouda had kidney and liver conditions. No other cases were found in the taluk. With the onset of monsoon, the monkey fever will subside and there is no reason to panic.”

KFD was first identified in the Kyasanur Forest in 1957, and is primarily transmitted through tick bites, especially from the hard tick Haemaphysalis spinigera.