Silchar, March 7: The spectre of meningitis, the killer viral fever, looms over two remote Mizoram districts.

The health directorate has sounded an alarm following the death of 43 children, mostly infants below six months, in the economically-backward Saiha and Langtlai districts bordering Myanmar.

The first such case was reported from the district hospital in Saiha town last October.

Announcing this yesterday, director of health services Rothangliana said the villagers had pressed the panic button when their babies with high fever, accompanied by respiratory trouble, had gastro-intestinal symptoms.

“At present, an infant suspected to have contracted meningitis virus is undergoing treatment in the district hospital,” Rothangliana said.

A three-member rapid response team comprising an epidemiologist, a paediatrician and a microbiologist that left Aizawl yesterday today toured the affected districts.

Meningitis had claimed lives of at least 19 children in the villages of southern Mizoram where an equal number of children died of gastro-enteritis and other diseases since October 8, the doctors told PTI.

Talking over phone from Aizawl yesterday, Rothangliana said stray cases of meningitis had been reported in the past, but “this is the first time that the disease has spread in the state in a virulent form”. Epidemiologist Pachuau Lalmalsawma said most the victims were poor.

According to a report, Zawngling in Saiha district, bore the brunt as 15 infants of the village died in Tuipang Civil Hospital in five months.

The report, however, claimed that the situation arising out of the outbreak of the disease “is now under control” in the affected areas following an awareness campaign on breast feeding, nutrition and medical care.