Stories already being followed before this week, with what changed since the figures reported on 11 Oct. NEW marks a changed figure; UNCHANGED means no newer figure was found. Three stories are closed this week because nothing further was reported.

Discussion frequency: Moderate·Status: ongoing since 15 March 2026

Location: Bangladesh (nationwide; Dhaka Division 491 and Sylhet Division 192 of the suspected deaths)

• DGHS bulletin, 18 Oct non-X: seven further suspected deaths in the 24 h to 08:00; 1,254 new suspected and 65 new confirmed cases; 189,484 hospitalised since 15 March, 181,756 discharged. Divisional split of suspected deaths: Dhaka 491, Sylhet 192, Chattogram 100, Rajshahi 93, Mymensingh 84, Barishal 65, Khulna 50, Rangpur 17. The Daily Star · Agamir Somoy · bdnews24
• Sylhet divisional health office (via ScrollBeat, 18 Oct): 195 deaths in the division this year, including 81 in Sylhet district and 69 in Sunamganj; 1,115 confirmed cases in the division since 1 January. ScrollBeat
• Journal / news context: BMJ news item on the toll passing 1,100 (12 Oct). doi:10.1136/bmj-2026-101120
• X (Bengali): daily tallies — RHB News: six deaths in 24 h (13 Oct) and seven (14 Oct); Probashir Diganta: four deaths and 1,392 cases in 24 h (15 Oct). risingbd (14 Oct) gives a cumulative 1,077 deaths “with measles or measles symptoms”, which appears to track the suspected-death series rather than the combined toll. WHO Bangladesh posted a vaccination call (17 Oct). rhbnews24 · rhbnews24 · probashidiganta · risingbdnews · WHO_BD
• X (English, political): Awami League and allied accounts framed the measles and dengue deaths as a health-system failure (13 Oct). One post cited “227,449 suspected cases”, which does not match any DGHS figure found. albd1971 · ghazal02022002

Discussion frequency: Moderate·Status: ongoing

Location: BangladeshDhaka North/South city corporations and all divisions

• DGHS, 18 Oct non-X: six deaths and 2,088 admissions in 24 h; 6,026 patients in hospital; 106,026 discharged this year. Dhaka Division had 595 admissions excluding the two city corporations; elsewhere, Khulna (290), Rajshahi (200) and Barishal (199) had the most admissions. The Daily Star · bdnews24 · UNB
• X (Bengali): Ekhon TV reports the Prime Minister ordered neighbourhood loudspeaker (miking) awareness campaigns (13 Oct); Sabah: five deaths and 1,920 admissions in 24 h (14 Oct). ekhon_tv · sabahnewsbd
• ESCMID Epi Alert (14 Oct) listed the growing Bangladesh outbreak among weekly global threats. ESCMID

Discussion frequency: Low in English on X; Malayalam not searched·Status: ongoing

Location: KeralaKozhikodeMalappuramErnakulam

• Kerala IDSP daily report, 16 Oct (non-X PDF, preliminary figures subject to laboratory confirmation and death audit), cumulative 2026:
  • Amoebic meningoencephalitis: 184 confirmed cases, 45 deaths (October so far: 7 cases, 1 death).
  • Measles: 588 confirmed (1 death) and 1,284 suspected (2 deaths); October so far 72 confirmed and 448 suspected.
  • Leptospirosis: 2,308 confirmed, 118 deaths; dengue 12,355 confirmed, 44 deaths; hepatitis A 6,186 confirmed, 43 deaths; scrub typhus 571 confirmed, 13 deaths; influenza 11,683, 123 deaths; Nipah 1 case (no new case).
  • Kerala IDSP, 16 Oct PDF · also 15 Oct PDF
• Kozhikode district review, 14 Oct non-X: 161 confirmed and 116 suspected measles cases and one death this year, spreading mainly among unvaccinated people; vaccination to be expanded with other departments. The Hindu
• Background (published before the window): Emerging Infectious Diseases (September 2026) on the epidemiology and risk factors of amoebic meningoencephalitis in Kerala in 2025. EID

Discussion frequency: Moderate·Status: ongoing seasonal; Northeast monsoon approaching

Location: Tamil NaduTenkasi (Kadayanallur)ChennaiThoothukudiCuddalorePudukkottai

• Kadayanallur pilot, 17 Oct non-X: Health Minister K. G. Arunraj launched a field study of Takeda’s Qdenga in Kadayanallur municipality, chosen for its past high dengue burden and deaths. Two doses three months apart; participation voluntary with written consent; ICMR scientists to evaluate. The minister cited 80–90% protection. CDSCO approved the vaccine in July for ages 4–60. A parallel study with ICMR-NIE Chennai across 33 wards will test skin repellents and electric vaporisers alongside existing vector control. Findings go to NTAGI before any wider rollout. The Hindu · Times of India · TNIE
• X (English): The Hindu and others carried the pilot. the_hindu · sudheeshdc
• X (English / Tamil), trend messaging: IANS quoted the minister on 13 Oct saying cases had “stabilized”; Puthiya Thalaimurai (Tamil) carried “dengue is under control, no need to fear” (14 Oct). Jaya Plus (Tamil, 14 Oct) headlined the minister as saying dengue “will increase further”. ians_india · PttvNewsX · jayapluschannel
• X (Tamil, operational): municipal larval-source and awareness drives in Thoothukudi, Cuddalore and Chennai (Sholinganallur fever camp). Dhina Tamil reported a “mystery fever” in Pudukkottai with eight dengue confirmations — not corroborated elsewhere. Tutycorp · DHOCUDDALORE26 · chennaicorp · dhinatamil45554

Discussion frequency: Low–moderate, mainly in Hindi·Status: ongoing

Location: IndiaRajasthanJaipurKota

• State review, 13 Oct non-X: Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Gayatri Rathore directed special vigilance on dengue and scrub typhus, with adequate testing, treatment and drugs in facilities; also HPV vaccination targets by 31 October. The release gives no case counts. Rajasthan health dept press release (Hindi) · X: DIPRRajasthan · 1stIndiaNews
• Kota (CMHO, published about 11 Oct; on X 12 Oct): 243 scrub typhus cases this year (261 last year), 93 ELISA-confirmed dengue cases (171 in the same period of 2025; Kota third in the state after Alwar and Jaipur), 3 malaria cases; seven recent swine-flu (influenza A(H1N1)pdm09) positives; no deaths from seasonal illness; doxycycline and azithromycin reported in stock. Dainik Bhaskar (Hindi) · zeerajasthan_
• Jaipur SMS Hospital (UNCHANGED): media tally of about 15 scrub typhus deaths July–September, nine in September. Bhaskar English · X: NewsNationTV (Hindi, 15 Oct)

Discussion frequency: Low·Status: ongoing, post-monsoon

Location: NepalChitwan (Ratnanagar, Bharatpur)

• Chitwan Public Health Office, 13 Oct non-X: 234 cases in the first three months of the fiscal year (142 local residents, 92 referred from other districts) from 1,816 samples tested; Ratnanagar 46, Bharatpur 32, Khairahani 22; more cases in women (148) than men (86); no deaths. Himalayan Times · X: FluTrackers · nepalsamajnews
• Background: Salyan district alone was reported at 606 infections and nine deaths by 6 Oct, against seven nationally verified deaths — a reporting discrepancy flagged last week. NM Khabar

Discussion frequency: Low on X this week·Status: ongoing since May

Location: Madhya PradeshBalaghatBirsa and Baihar blocksGond and Baiga villages

• Indian Express long read, 18 Oct non-X: the district list stands at 32 child deaths (ages 1–13); the last, on 29 Aug, was a 10-year-old whose discharge papers record Plasmodium falciparum malaria and septic shock. First deaths traced to Matla village on 18 May. The state has vaccinated 40,000 children, identified more than 8,000 patients and admitted 745. The district vaccination and malaria control officers have been suspended. ASHA and ANM posts were vacant in villages visited, and anganwadi take-home rations had not been supplied for more than six months. Indian Express
• Background (9 Oct): NJORT laboratory findings (measles 25/64, malaria 27/32 slides) and staffing gaps. Indian Express

Discussion frequency: Low–moderate·Status: seasonal

Location: DelhiMumbaiUttar Pradesh / Bihar

• Delhi (MCD, to 10 Oct; reported 13–14 Oct): 799 dengue and 294 malaria cases this year; 202 dengue and 51 malaria cases in October to 10 Oct; 32 chikungunya cases this year; no dengue or malaria deaths. Mosquito breeding found in about 1.98 lakh houses. Earlier tally (week ending 3 Oct): 695 dengue. Free Press Journal · X: tishhanews
• Mumbai (Hindi media on X, 13 Oct): concern over hospital bed shortages for dengue and malaria treatment. Not cross-checked. MumbaiLiveHindi
• Citizen complaints (Hindi X): waste dumping beside the TB Hospital, Jalla Road, Patna, and lapsed fogging in Kanpur, both raised as dengue and malaria risks. Unverified discussion on X only. SkakelaSanjay · mraghvendr
• Bihar (Saran district, 15 Oct): post-flood sanitation and bleaching drive against water- and vector-borne disease. Saran_dm

Discussion frequency: Low; “Lower Dir” X traffic this week was political (protests, governor’s rule), not health-related.

Location: PakistanKhyber PakhtunkhwaPunjab

• GPEI Polio This Week (as of 14 Oct): one WPV1 case from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (onset 13 September, already counted in our 11 Oct issue) added to GPEI’s weekly listing; 2026 total six (2025: 31). Most recent positive environmental sample 10 September. Afghanistan: 36 cases in 2026. GPEI
• Dengue (Punjab): Rawalpindi 58 confirmed of 5,727 screened, seven in hospital, no deaths (district health authority, 18 Oct); Punjab 250 confirmed, 84 in October, Lahore 65 and Rawalpindi 57 (16 Oct, Urdu media). Daily Times · Lahore News (Urdu)
• Sindh malaria: no newer provincial tally than 117,016 (1 Jan–29 Sep) (UNCHANGED). Dawn

Discussion frequency: Low on X·Status: new signal

Location: Sri Lanka

• Chief Epidemiologist, 15 Oct non-X: influenza rising for three to four weeks; about 35% of samples tested last week were influenza-positive; higher risk of complications in pregnancy, young children, older adults and people with chronic disease. News Center LK · Newsfirst · X: gossiplanka
• Dengue: NDCU daily updates after 6 October were listed but could not be opened at check time, so the last figures read remain 101,744 cases and 78 deaths (UNCHANGED). NDCU 6 Oct PDF

Discussion frequency: Isolated

Location: Maldives

• An X account (17 Oct) states that Health Protection Agency (HPA) staff admitted in a formal meeting that the recent Maldives measles outbreak was “directly related” to the Bangladesh outbreaks, and makes the same claim for TB. Unverified discussion on X only. ph30nix01
• Background (27 Sep, before the window): the Health Minister said there were no active cases, 282 infections had been reported since May, the cases were believed to come from international travel, and more than 16,000 people had been vaccinated. MMTV

Discussion frequency: Low on X; no mechanism-level clinician threads found·Status: ongoing theme

Location: India (multicentre); Bangladesh (Chattogram)

• Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia (8 Oct; indexed in window): ICMR MycoNet registry, 63 ICUs in eight mycology centres, Jan 2023–Nov 2025: 2,500 proven/probable invasive fungal infections among 178,417 ICU admissions (14/1,000), all-cause mortality 53.6%; candidiasis 57.1% (C. tropicalis 35.6% of candidiasis), aspergillosis 37%, mucormycosis 3.4%. C. auris fluconazole resistance 61.7%, with elevated amphotericin B MICs in 40.7%. doi:10.1016/j.lansea.2026.100877
• Indian J Med Microbiol (14 Oct): invasive fungal disease in 100 haematological-malignancy patients (Safdarjung, New Delhi): panfungal PCR sensitivity 88.8%, BDG 87.3%; microscopy/culture positive in 25%. doi:10.1016/j.ijmmb.2026.101319
• Can J Infect Dis Med Microbiol (17 Oct): Klebsiella pneumoniae from two Chattogram tertiary hospitals — 72.59% of 704 records MDR; rmpA in 12.34% of PCR-tested isolates; string-test-positive isolates more resistant; the sequenced isolate was ST29. doi:10.1155/cjid/2610958
• IJID Regions (in window): review of azithromycin resistance, diagnostic gaps and vaccine-linked stewardship for enteric infections in LMICs. doi:10.1016/j.ijregi.2026.101008
• Preprint (medRxiv, 15 Oct): AMR knowledge, attitudes and practices among users of an Indian digital healthcare platform (cross-sectional online survey; not peer-reviewed). doi:10.64898/2026.10.14.26365518
• X (institutional): ICMR and GARDP convened an India Strategy Consultation on 14 Oct in New Delhi on antibiotic innovation, access, responsible use and regulatory pathways. ICMRDELHI · gardp_amr. The UK government (Scotland Office) publicised a Microbira–Agilus rapid microbial testing partnership. UKGovScotland. Pharmacy Council of India’s Pharmacy Week 2026 theme is combating AMR. pcievent
• X (resurfacing): an account quoting ICMR 2024 susceptibility figures (E. coli imipenem 57.6%, Klebsiella 31.2%) and a 61% carbapenem resistance figure from a Lancet study; the post was generated with an AI assistant and has no source link. Unverified discussion on X only. vishwasanskruti

• Lancet Reg Health SE Asia: strategies for Kyasanur Forest Disease vaccine development (correlates of protection, macaque challenge, immunobridging), noting the discontinuation of the formalin-inactivated vaccine in 2022 (ICMR-NIE, NIV, NIOH authors). doi:10.1016/j.lansea.2026.100817
• Wellcome Open Research: synthesis of the 4th South Asian Melioidosis Congress (Guwahati, November 2025) on under-recognition, misclassification as TB and laboratory capacity. doi:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.27378.1
• J Trop Pediatr: paediatric scrub typhus (Vijayawada, 181 children): critical deterioration in 34.3%; neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, CRP, low sodium and delayed doxycycline independently predicted it (external validation required). doi:10.1093/tropej/fmag068
• Am J Trop Med Hyg (13 Oct): CT features distinguishing pulmonary melioidosis from pulmonary TB in diabetic patients. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.26-0337
• Indian J Med Microbiol (15 Oct): CSF TNF-α and IL-1β signatures in PCR-confirmed acute bacterial meningitis. doi:10.1016/j.ijmmb.2026.101317
• Diagnostics on X: India Health Fund says Ameliorate Biotech is clinically evaluating a single rapid test for dengue, chikungunya and malaria (12 Oct; company/funder claim, no data shown). IndiaHealthFund

Discussion frequency: Not discussed on X.

• Week 33 (10–16 Aug): about 28 outbreak entries; hepatitis and dengue are the most frequent terms. Week 34 (17–23 Aug): about 48 entries, including measles (Dhubri, Khordha, Dimapur), hepatitis A/jaundice clusters (Palakkad 95 cases; Kolhapur 73), acute diarrhoeal disease, and chickenpox in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. Week 33 PDF · Week 34 PDF
• Week 34 items worth noting: Amreli (Gujarat) — a 15-year-old investigated as suspected Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever tested IgM-negative and died of liver failure; animal and tick-pool samples were negative at NIV Pune. Mahisagar (Gujarat) — a cluster of seven children aged 8–14 reported as Guillain–Barré syndrome, with fever, abdominal pain, loose motions and leg weakness among the reported symptoms; stool culture awaited and water samples positive for bacterial contamination. Week 34 PDF

• Kerala IDSP (16 Oct) still records a single 2026 Nipah case; the latest WHO Disease Outbreak News for India Nipah remains DON609 (25 June 2026). Kerala IDSP, 16 Oct PDF · WHO DON609

Discussion frequency: Isolated

• No new anti-infective not-of-standard-quality (NSQ) alert was found in the window. Background: the August 2026 NSQ list (published September) included batches of azithromycin with lactic acid bacillus, amikacin injection, cefpodoxime dispersible tablets and co-amoxiclav tablets; alerts apply only to the listed batches. Hindustan Times · CDSCO NSQ alerts page
• CDSCO approval of Qdenga (July) is cited in Section 04.

• TB (resurfacing): PIB Goa (14 Oct) re-circulated the WHO Global TB Report 2025 estimate that India’s TB incidence fell 21% between 2015 and 2024; this is not a new report. AIIMS Jammu opened a DOTS centre at Vijaypur (12 Oct). PIB_Panaji · The Wire (background) · AiimsJammu
• Hospital hygiene: AIIMS Patna posted daily cleanliness drives in ICUs and OTs under Special Campaign 6.0 (institutional, not IPC audit data). aiims_patna
• Naegleria / travel (US-facing thread): one reply asserted that most recent US amoebic cases were tied to travel to India/Nepal. Unverified discussion on X only. mojomodro
• Citizen appeal: one post asked WHO SEARO for research on scrub typhus deaths, claiming cases in India are rising. Unverified discussion on X only. RudraRudra88365

Global ID items active in or relevant to 12–18 Oct 2026 (after the India/South Asia clusters).

Meetings of interest to India/South Asia clinical microbiology and ID, checked against 18 Oct 2026.

No 2027 dates or abstract deadlines for CIDSCON or IDSI meetings were found at the time of writing.

On X this week, news outlets, government health departments and municipal accounts again outnumbered clinicians and microbiologists. Bangladesh’s daily measles and dengue bulletins dominated the Bengali stream. Tamil-language posts were mostly municipal vector-control activity and political replies about the Health Minister. Hindi posts centred on Rajasthan scrub typhus and civic complaints about mosquito breeding. The most technically substantive new material (Kerala’s provisional amoebic meningoencephalitis and measles counts, the ICU fungal registry, IDSP weeks 33–34) came from official PDFs and journals with little or no X pickup. Political amplification continued for Bangladesh, and “Lower Dir” X traffic was political rather than health-related. AI-generated replies were common in health threads and were not used as sources.

Topics with minimal or absent discussion this window:

• Hospital HAI clusters and Candida auris on X (literature only)
• Cholera laboratory confirmations
• Mucormycosis (new clusters)
• Nipah (new event)
• Anti-infective CDSCO recalls (in-window)
• Lower Dir and Ganjam follow-up (both closed this week)
• Bhutan