Ranchi, May 9: A medical team from Ranchi rushed to Simdega today and started a health camp in the wake of the deaths of two villagers due to anthrax even as health secretary K. Vidyasagar asked animal husbandry officials to start a vaccination drive for animals in the district.

The team, comprising Dr Ramesh Prasad, director of the state integrated surveillance, and senior health official Praveen Karn, besides microbiologist, epidemiologist and lab technicians from RIMS, is camping at Panchayat Bhavan at Bandarchuwa village in Kolebira block, where the deaths occurred on Thursday night.

The team members collected samples for pathological tests from villagers suspected to be suffering from the virulent disease even as health secretary Vidyasagar claimed that the situation was under control.

"We have reports of 15 villagers showing symptoms of anthrax. They are from different villages of Bandarchuwa panchayat. The samples have been sent to RIMS. But there is nothing to fear," he added.

Simdega Sadar Hospital's senior doctor Abhayan Sharan supported Vidyasagar, saying that they had admitted two women and 13 men with symptoms of anthrax.

"Apart from this, we don't have information of any more case," he said, adding that residents of the district had been advised as a precautionary measure to keep themselves away from animal carcasses and avoid eating flesh.

"As anthrax spreads through animals, I am asking people to stay off dead animal," Sharan said.

Health secretary Vidyasagar added that he had a word with officials of the animal husbandry department today for starting a vaccination drive for animals in Simdega within a couple of days.

Caused by bacterium Bacillus anthracis and spread through spores, anthrax infects grazing cattle and transfers to humans via touch, blood or flesh. Symptoms include scars on body, cold and flu that escalate to pneumonia and respiratory collapse, and more rarely, severe gastro-intestinal disorders. Ambiguous symptoms can delay diagnosis.

The anthrax scare is revisiting Simdega after seven months. In October 2014, seven mysterious deaths in Bano block occurred, with intensive probes at the state level and by experts from National Centre for Disease Control confirming anthrax as the killer.