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What is Kyasanur Forest Disease or Monkey Fever that killed two people in K'taka?

This year, two people in Karnataka died from Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), also known as monkey fever. This disease, which monkeys

By Ground Report Desk 07 Feb 2024

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What is Kyasanur Forest Disease or Monkey Fever that killed two people in K'taka?

This year, two people in Karnataka died from Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), also known as monkey fever. This disease, which monkeys usually get, is a type of fever that causes bleeding and is spread by ticks. It’s caused by the KFD virus. After 3-8 days, people start to feel cold, have a fever, and get a headache. About 3-4 days after that, they might have severe muscle pain, throw up, have stomach problems, and bleed.

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The Health Department reported that the first death from Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), also known as monkey fever, happened in Hosanagar taluk of Shivamogga district on January 8. An 18-year-old girl died from the virus. The second death was a 79-year-old man from Sringeri taluk in Chikkamagaluru. He died in a private hospital in Manipal, Udupi district.

So far, there have been 49 cases of monkey fever in the state. Most of them, 34 cases, were in Uttara Kannada district. There were 12 cases in Shivamogga and three in Chikkamagaluru district.

Because of the increase in KFD cases and the two deaths, D Randeep, the Health and Family Welfare Commissioner of Karnataka, visited Shivamogga on Saturday. He met with health officials from Uttara Kannada, Shivamogga, and Chikkamagaluru districts, where there have been cases of KFD.

Randeep and a team of senior officials from the state Health department reviewed how ready they are to deal with the spread of the virus.

The state Health Commissioner said that since January 1 this year, the Health department has collected 2,288 samples from the districts where there have been cases of KFD. Out of these, 48 tested positive for the disease.

What is Monkey Fever?

Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) commonly known as Monkey Fever is a viral haemorrhagic disease that was first identified in 1957 in the Kyasanur Forest in the Western Ghats of India. It is caused by KFD virus (KFDV) which is an arbovirus of the family Flaviviridae.

The virus that causes it, called the Kyasanur Forest Disease Virus, is part of the tick-borne encephalitis complex. Different types of ticks can transmit it, but Haemophysalis spinigera is thought to be the main one. Small rodents, monkeys, and birds are believed to help spread the virus. Cattle might be important hosts for adult H. spinigera ticks, but they develop antibodies against the virus which stop the virus from growing.

If infected ticks bite humans or if they touch an infected animal, they can contract the KFD virus. However, since they cannot infect ticks or other people with the virus, they are considered dead-end hosts. Therefore, they cannot help spread the KFD virus.

Who is affected?

KFD first appeared in Kyasanur Forest, Karnataka when human activities started damaging the forest. Since 2012, it has spread to new areas in India, affecting around 500 people each year. Between 5 to 10% of those affected by KFD develop severe symptoms and die. Over the past five years, at least 340 people have died from the disease.

Most affected are people in low-income forest communities, including:

Farmers who graze cattle in the forest for manure.
Tribal forest-dwellers who collect wood and forest products.
Day laborers in plantations or forests.

People avoid the forest due to the disease risk, affecting their livelihoods. Although vaccination and awareness campaigns help manage KFD, lack of knowledge and low vaccine uptake can make the situation worse.

Symptoms of Monkey Fever

Monkey Fever, also known as Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), is a viral disease. After an incubation period of 3 to 8 days, the symptoms of Monkey Fever can include:

Fever
Chills
Headache
Severe exhaustion
Nausea and vomiting
Stomach pain
Diarrhoea
Meningitis
Confusion
Hemorrhagic signs like nose bleeds and bleeding gums

In severe cases, the disease can lead to more serious symptoms like bleeding and organ failure. If you notice any of these symptoms, it’s important to seek medical attention immediately.

Why is KFD risk higher in degraded and fragmented forest?

The likelihood of Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) spreading is higher in areas where people have broken up or damaged the forests. The disease first emerged when people cleared forests for mining, roads, and farming in the 1950s.

But, we don't have enough information about the ecosystem and social factors of KFD to confirm this idea or pinpoint high-risk zones for the disease.

Ticks, rodents, birds, and primates might spread the KFD virus through various parts. However, it's not clear how these animals link to different types of forests, and which ones primarily spread KFD as human activities damage forests.

Prevention and treatment

We can prevent Monkey Fever through vaccination, wearing protective clothing, and controlling the tick population. Scientists make the vaccine for this disease from a form of the KFDV that they have inactivated with formalin.

If a person gets two doses of the vaccine, it works about 62.4% of the time. If they get one more dose, the vaccine works about 82.9% of the time. As of 2022, there are no specific antiviral treatments for this disease.

Affected states in India

The disease was first identified in the Shimoga district of Karnataka, a early forested area in the Western Ghats of India. It has since spread to other districts in Karnataka, including Chikkamagalore, Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chamarajanagar (2012), and Belagavi (2016).

In 2013, researchers found the virus responsible for the disease in monkey autopsies from the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Reports have come in of monkey deaths and human cases in three neighboring states bordering Karnataka: Wayanad (2013) and Malappuram districts of Kerala (2014), North Goa district of Goa (2015), and Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra (2016).

The disease has a mortality rate of 3-10% and affects 400-500 people each year. The disease was first observed in the Kyasanur village near Sagar in the Shivamogga district of Karnataka. The virus has been detected in monkeys in parts of the Bandipur National Park (Chamarajnagar) and parts of the Nilgiris.

Infected dead monkeys caused human infection in Bandipur through contact. Identification also occurred for a human carrier in Wayanad, Kerala. Detection of the disease has occurred in the neighboring states of Karnataka, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat.