JOIN USOfficials reduce limits of KFD vaccination area
Fearing shortage of vaccines for the Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), Health officials have decided to reduce the area to be covered under the vaccination drive from a radius of five km to two km.
Earlier, people residing within five km radius of the place where dead monkeys were found were being vaccinated against KFD as a precautionary measure.
But now, it has been reduced to two km. Confirming this, KFD field station officer S K Kiran told DH that KFD-infected monkey deaths were reported not only in Shivamogga but also in Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada districts and this prompted the Health department to use the existing stock judiciously.
He said of the available 16,000 units, 1,000 have already been supplied to Chikkamagaluru district and 10,000 units are to be supplied to Uttara Kannada district.
Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts are yet to get their supplies. As per norms, vaccination drive must be conducted within five km radius of the place where dead monkeys were found.
A proposal has been submitted to the National Institute of Virology at Hebbal in Bengaluru, for 70,000 units of the vaccine.
He said two doses must be administered to people in the KFD-hit areas as one dose is not enough to boost immunity. A person vaccinated against KFD needs 60 days to get immunity. Later, another dose has to be administered.
As many as 63 people have tested positive for KFD in the district. Of them, nine are undergoing treatment at the KMC Hospital, Manipal.
Several writers have demanded that the district administration put off the five-day Sahyadri Utsav, following the outbreak of KFD in Sagar taluk.