Saddening Gujarat's Sabarkantha district, four children have died while two others are undergoing treatment for suspected infection of Chandipura virus (CHPV).
According to reports, Sabarkantha Chief District Health Officer Raj Sutariya said that blood samples of all six children have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune for confirmation and their results are awaited. The two ill kids, hailing from Rajasthan, are being treated at the civil hospital at Himmatnagar in the district.
Of the four children who have died so far, one was from the Sabarkantha district and two were from the Aravalli district, reported news agency PTI. The fourth child hailed from Rajasthan.
Chandipura virus, transmitted by vectors like mosquitoes, ticks and sandflies, causes fever, with symptoms similar to the flu. The disease also leads to acute encephalitis or inflammation of the brain. The pathogen is a member of the Vesiculovirus genus of the family Rhabdoviridae.
The authorities in Rajasthan have been informed about the death of the child due to the suspected viral infection, Sutariya said.
To curb the infection, the district authorities have deployed teams to conduct preventive measures, including dusting to kill sandflies in affected areas, officials said.
CHPV has been contributing to the rising number of premature deaths due to acute encephalitis syndrome for over a decade in India, a medical journal released in 2017 has said. Although the virus closely resembles with the prototype vesiculovirus, Vesicular Stomatitis Virus, it could be readily distinguished by its ability to infect humans.
"CHPV upon entering the neurons triggers cellular stress factors and release of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The stress granules produced in response to cellular stress have been implicated in viral replication and ROS generation, which stimulates neuronal death. Both these phenomena cohesively explain the neuropathogenesis and neurodegeneration following CHPV infection," an article published on PubMed said.
