Chikungunya could be resurfacing in the State in a major way and can potentially result in outbreaks across districts unless preventive control measures are strengthened and massive awareness campaigns launched among the public on the importance of preventing vector breeding on the premises of households, public health experts have warned.
At present, major outbreaks have been reported from Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram alone, with the number of cases rising from early September. But given the nature and potential of the Chikungunya virus to spread far and wide – globally, hundreds of cases were reported this year in the U.S. and Europe – and the omnipresence of Aedes species of mosquitoes in the State, those unaffected by the virus in previous outbreaks in all districts are at risk of contracting the fever, they said.
The actual number of reported Chikungunya cases in the health system’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Project is quite low, with the cumulative figure for the year showing just 143 suspected cases, as on September 30. However, senior Health officials confided that only 15 to 20 per cent of the actual number of Chikungunya cases in the field was being reported.
Many seek treatment“In both districts, a significant number of cases have been seeking treatment in private sector hospitals while several others are under treatment for fever with arthralgia at home or with other medicine systems. In Ernakulam, only around 40 suspected Chikungunya cases have been reported from the Vypeen-West Kochi belt, but there are hundreds affected in the field.
In Thiruvananthapuram, there is a clustering of at least 230 Chikungunya cases in 27 Corporation wards, which the authorities have chosen to brush under the carpet, claiming that these are ‘old cases.’
In many localities here such as Palkulangara, Vattiyoorkavu, and Paruthykuzhi, there are several households with Chikungunya cases in a single neighbourhood,” senior Health officials confided.
With heavy rain in the past weeks, water stagnation, increased mosquito breeding should have been anticipated. But there is lack of coordination in field activities between the Health Department’s staff and the Corporations’ health workers, with each blaming the other of ‘non-cooperation.’
