At least 32 dead in worst outbreak of Chandipura virus in over 20 years

Surveillance is also being conducted across nearly 20,000 homes across the state for the presence of sandflies and mosquitoes, and around 1,500 houses have been sprayed with powder repellent to try and rid the area of the disease-carrying insects. 

First identified in the mid-1960s in the village of Chandipura, the virus has caused sporadic outbreaks over the past 80 years.

In 2003, 329 children tested positive for the virus in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, with 183 of them dying. An outbreak in Gujarat in 2010 killed 17 people.

It is not entirely clear why the virus is now surging again.

Stagnant water and rising temperatures

“The virus is transmitted via sandflies, and so anything that affects the insect population will affect the disease appearing in humans,” Prof Easton explained.

“If circumstances change in a particular environment – for example, there’s an increase in stagnant water, where the bugs breed, because sanitation has broken down or there’s limited sanitation – then the likelihood of infection increases, because the population of the insects can surge,” added Prof Easton.

Warming temperatures also most likely have played a role, said Prof Easton.

Several vector-borne diseases have spiked in recent years across the globe, due mostly to the effects of climate change that allow insects like sandflies, mosquitoes, and ticks to breed and survive in large numbers.

In India, cases of Zika, Malaria, Dengue, and Nipah virus – all of which are carried by mosquitos – have surged this summer.

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