Overview
- Health authorities confirmed that the final-year student, Harish Kumar, who died on Friday, was diagnosed with scrub typhus and not dengue.
- The Directorate of Public Health posted that this is a single reported scrub typhus case and that earlier social-media reports of a dengue outbreak with multiple deaths were incorrect.
- Anna University and the Greater Chennai Corporation set up screening camps for hostel residents, expanded testing to constituent colleges, and mobilised cleaning teams to remove waste and prevent vector breeding.
- Officials said a small number of dengue cases had been detected on campus in recent weeks and one dengue-positive student remains hospitalised, so surveillance for multiple febrile illnesses continues.
- Scrub typhus is a bacterial illness spread by infected mite bites that can mimic other monsoon fevers, which is why health teams are using rapid screening, CBC tests and targeted sanitation to find and treat cases quickly.