GUWAHATI: Four people have died and 200 others have been infected due to an outbreak of dengue in Karbi Anglong, one of the two hill districts in Assam, officials said on Friday.

Most of the cases have been reported from Diphu, the district headquarters. Officials said this is the first instance of such a big outbreak of dengue in Karbi Anglong.

“Till date we have recorded 4 deaths and admitted 180 infected persons in our hospital. There have been other cases in out-patients department (OPD) as well At present there are 26 patients admitted to the hospital of which one is in intensive care unit (ICU),” said Dr Ratul Takur, deputy superintendent, Diphu Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).

Officials said the first few cases were reported in the first week of October and the cases kept on increasing in subsequent weeks. While new cases are still coming in, doctors said they might decrease within next one-two weeks as the rains have stopped.

“Usually, we have fewer dengue cases in northeast region in comparison to other parts of the country. The number of cases in the hill areas is very rare, but this year there has been an unexpected increase,” said Dr Thakur.

Health officials said measures like reduction of sources where mosquitoes breed, awareness drives and fogging especially in localities of Diphu have been undertaken to bring down the number of cases.

“We don’t usually see such an outbreak of dengue in Karbi Anglong. It was only after the first few cases were detected that we increased surveillance and tests. The positivity rate is very high and out of 250 tests, about 200 are infected,” said Dr Borsing Rongpi, joint director (health), Karbi Anglong.

“Last year, we conducted 75 tests and only one person was found infected in the entire district. We are yet to understand why the outbreak has occurred this year. State level teams have arrived in Diphu and are conducting studies,” he added.

Officials said that usually cases in past years used to be traced from travel history of an infected person outside the district, but most cases this year didn’t have any travel history.