With garbage mounting in many parts of the city following the devastating floods, fears of disease outbreaks loom, but the Chennai Corporation on Tuesday said there had been no outbreaks of any diseases so far.
From December 1 to 14, the civic body has held a total of 3,531 camps with 6,05,609 beneficiaries. Over 10,000 cases of fever and over 4,000 of diarrhoea have been detected.
“One girl died due to acute diarrhoeal disease in a hospital. All of the other cases have been simple stomach upsets treated with oral rehydration salts. Not a single fever case has been referred to the hospital so far. There is no outbreak,” said deputy commissioner health R. Kannan.
Private hospitals in the city too have said that apart from some isolated cases that have required hospitalisation, there has been no out of proportion increase in diseases such as leptospirosis or malaria.
“But we should be watching out for dengue, flu and typhoid,” said Subramanian Swaminathan, infectious diseases consultant at Global Hospitals.
A majority of the cases now being seen were of viral gastroenteritis and upper respiratory infections, he said.
“These are expected after a flood,” he said.
At Apollo Hospitals too, a few patients have been admitted with diarrhoea but are getting better, said director of medical services at the hospital N. Sathyabhama.
Sporadic cases of cholera, leptospirosis and dengue are there, but there has not been an increased incidence of these diseases as yet, said R. Sundararaman, head of internal medicine at SRM Institutes for Medical Science.
“But, we have to worry about typhoid and Hepatitis A. Residents should stay careful – avoid outside food, maintain personal hygiene and hand washing especially with children,” he said.
