SUMMARY: Studies carried out in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Union Territory of Delhi after the bubonic plague outbreak during 1994 revealed the presence of seven species of rodents, viz. Rattus rattus, R. norvegicus, Mus. musculus, Tat era indica, Suncus murinus, Bandicoota bengalensis and B. indica. The flea species encountered were Xenopsylla cheopis and X. astia. The X. cheopis and X. astia index recorded in different areas of Beed district of Maharashtra; Surat, Vadodra and Baruch districts in Gujarat and Varanasi district in Uttar Pradesh and their implications have been discussed. Insecticide suspectibility tests carried out against DDT, dieldrin, malathion and deltamethrin with X. cheopis collected from Maharashtra, Delhi and Varanasi revealed that this vector species is resistant to DDT and dieldrin but susceptible to malathion and deltamethrin. The prevalence and distribution of rodents species, high cheopis index and prevalence of Tatera indica just at the door steps of houses in village Mamla of Beed district provides highly congenital conditions for the intermingling of wild and domestic rodents and transfer of flea population from wild to domestic rodents and vice-versa. These conditions were found to be highly supportive for bubonic plague transmission in the district. The presence of Yersinia pestis antibodies in Rattus rattus collected from Beed, Surat and Varanasi areas are also indicative of bubonic plague in Beed and Varanasi and pneumonic plague in Surat during 1994.97
Studies carried out on entomological and rodent surveillance in agroclimatic and feral biotopes of five districts of Maharashtra and two districts of Gujarat revealed that the terrain features of the seven districts surveyed were conducive to wild rodent species, Ta tera indica, a natural reservoir of plague and vector flea species, Xenopsylla cheopis. A total of 214 Tatera indica and three Bandicoota bengalensis were collected from burrows by the digging method and 89 rat fleas were retrieved. The flea index calculated ranged from 0.26 to 1.0 in different districts. The examination of blood serum samples, contact tissue impression smears and tissue organs (heart, lung, liver and spleen) of these wild rodents did not reveal any evidence of plague activity. The natural harbourages of Ta tera indica were found to be elevated land or raised margins of agricultural fields or barren land with thorny bushes/xerophytic plants and parthenium grass. Agricultural fields having wet soil were found to be the preferred harbourages of Bandicoota bengalensis. Movement of wild rodents toward human settlement was observed to be the common phenomenon during the harvesting season which may lead to the creation of favorable conditions for plague outbreaks.
SUMMARY: A rapid survey in Delhi and surrounding areas was undertaken in September 1994, during plague outbreak in District Beed (Maharashtra) and Surat (Gujarat) to monitor rodent/flea population and to determine susceptibility status of fleas to insecticides. The five rodent species in order of their prevalence were Rattus rattus (86.06%), Mus musculus (15.33%), Suncus murinus (2.47%), Bandicoota indica (0.48%) and B. bengalensis (0.48%). Two flea species, Xenopsylla cheopis and X. astia, were captured from these rodents. The absolute flea index was found to be ranging between 0.08 to 4.0 in various localities. X. cheopis and X, astia indexes were ranging between 0.22 to 2.08 and 0.08 to 4.0, respectively.Susceptibility test results with X. cheopis collected and reared in the laboratory revealed that it is resistant to DDT and Dieldrin, tolerant to Malathion and susceptible to K-othrin (Deltamethrin).
In 1985-86, I conducted anthropological research in Fiji on health care strategies of Indo-Fijian women. The work was carried out in a cane-growing settlement, in a market-vegetable settlement, and a 56-bed sub-divisional hospital in Fiji's Western Division. In this paper I present a portion of that research concerning the development of a Hospital Auxiliary in terms of the moral and personal predicaments with which I battled in the course of the study.
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