The Health department has issued an alert against scrub typhus in Alappuzha. Fresh cases of the disease have been reported from Kalath and District Court wards in Alappuzha municipality.
Last year, three scrub typhus cases were reported in the district. The disease, which is caused by a bacteria called Orientia tsutsugamushi, will not spread from person to person.
District Medical Officer Jamuna Varghese urged people to exercise caution. Scrub typhus is spread to people through bites of infected chiggers, larvae of a small insect called mite. The DMO said that humans mostly get the disease when bitten by chiggers present on the body of animals such as rats, rabbits, mice, and squirrels.
