The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Viral fever affects thousands

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Sunday, Jul 05, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Viral fever affects thousands

Nagesh Prabhu

Besides chikungunya and dengue, malaria too is prevalent in many parts of State

9,816 people down with chikungunya in State this year
1,429 confirmed cases of malaria and 329 of dengue

BANGALORE: Three diseases, chikungunya, malaria and dengue are sweeping through the State with patients being admitted to hospitals in nearly 50 per cent of the 176 taluks .

Sources in the State Government told The Hindu that thousands of people had been infected with these three diseases in the last couple of months.

The official count of those affected by chikungunya had touched 9,816 in the State and Health Department officials conceded that the figure might be much higher.

As many as 1,429 persons had been infected with malaria and 329 with dengue.

The officials pointed out that chikungunya, which was transmitted through bites from the Aedes aegypti mosquito had spread to 87 taluks in 25 districts.

As on June 30, 923 confirmed cases of infection had been reported from different districts, including the jurisdiction of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. A large number of suspected cases had been reported from Uttara Kananda, Haveri and Dharwad districts.

However, the number of infected persons was less compared to previous years. As many as 7.62 lakh persons were infected with chikungunya in 2006, 1,705 persons in 2007 and 46,510 in 2008, the official said.

Chikungunya had been rampant in the Kolar Gold Fields, Kolar and Bangalore Rural districts over the past three years and along with dengue and malaria spreads largely during the monsoon season.

Many cases of dengue had been reported from Bangalore City, Haveri, Shimoga and Uttara Kannada districts. So far, it had claimed one life. Scientists at the Field Station of the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Bangalore, had visited some of the chikungunya affected areas and studied the results of blood samples of the victims. They collected samples of 2,269 people.

Despite forming rapid response teams in all districts and detection of breeding of mosquitoes in domestic places, the vector-borne disease had spread across the State. At present, apart from the NIV Field Station, Bangalore, six sentinel surveillance centres had been functioning for diagnosis of dengue and chikungunya in different parts of the State.

On its part, the Government had released Rs. 24 lakh to Rs. 30 lakh to each district for implementing preventive measures to control the spread of dengue, Rs. 30 lakh for each district for chikungunya and Rs. 25.49 lakh to each district to combat malaria.

The government hospitals in the districts had been directed to adopt certain preventive measures in the residential areas and to provide timely medical attention to patients.

It was another matter that most government hospitals were short of beds and patients were forced to share beds or even sleep on corridors.

Official sources said irregular supply of drinking water in slums of Bangalore city and storage of water by residents in drums for weeks were major reasons for breeding of mosquitoes and spread of diseases. In middle and upper class homes, maintaining indoor plants had been identified as a cause for chikungunya which impaired the muscles and limbs for over a fortnight.

Minister for Excise and IT/BT Katta Subramanya Naidu, who is the district in-charge minister for Bangalore Urban, said Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike officials had undertaken fogging operations from Saturday and to utilise ambulances for providing treatment to infected persons.

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