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Anthrax scare intensifies in Orissa

Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar

Fear of an anthrax outbreak has gripped several Orissa villages following reports of more people receiving letters containing a mysterious powder over the past five days.

The scare peaked when two children of Gouripur village in coastal Jajpur district, 113 km from Bhubaneswar, fell unconscious after sniffing powder that came in a letter on Friday, an official said.

The sender was one Mantu Sahu of Ahmedabad, and the letter was addressed to Madan Mohan Sahoo. Mantu Sahu is Madan Mohan Sahoo's nephew and works in the army.

The postman dropped the letter at the Sahoo home at about 11.00 am on Friday. Sahoo's daughter, 12-year-old Bhanumati, who opened the letter and found white powder, fell unconscious after smelling it. Within seconds, 11-year-old Kanhei, a neighbour's son, also fainted after sniffing the powder, the official said.

Both the children developed fever Sunday but the district administration denied they had contracted anthrax.

Meanwhile, according to reports, an employee of a school in Pattamundei in Kendrapada district received a letter sent from Bihar containing white powder a couple of days ago. The school authorities burnt the letter, reports said.

"Now we are receiving (news of) similar incidents from other villages too," an officer at the police headquarters told Indo-Asian News Service.

One of the latest victims of the powder attack is 25-year-old Ramakanta Mishra of Mukundpur village in Jajpur district, where the two minors fell unconscious sniffing powder, he said.

Mishra opened a letter posted from the northeastern state of Tripura on Saturday addressed to a fellow villager. He too reportedly lost consciousness on sniffing the powder. Villagers admitted him to a hospital.

The same night, Parni Charan Padhee, a college principal in the coastal town of Berhampur received an envelope from Lucknow, and found tiny yellow particles in it. He immediately informed the police.

"The cases we have examined till date did not reveal that the letters carried powder of anthrax or any other deadly diseases," state police chief N C Padhi said.

But Orissa's residents are scared. So fearful are they that they refuse to open envelopes delivered by postmen or couriers, a postman in the state capital said.

Orissa, incidentally, has a high rate of anthrax. Quite a few cases of humans contracting anthrax have been reported over the past few years. Some tribespersons in the impoverished district of Kalahandi and Koraput had died of anthrax after consuming contaminated cattle meat some years ago.

The state government has ordered district level health officials to remain alert for rash anthrax cases. "We have directed all the district medical officers to report all death cases due to 12 communicable diseases," surveillance medical officer Madan Mohan Pradhan said.

Indo-Asian News Service

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