The Health Department has issued an alert to all districts to chalk out clear action plans to tackle infectious diseases as the second monsoon season in Kerala – northeast monsoon — could lead to yet another surge in all infectious diseases, especially, dengue and leptospirosis.
Though dengue is hyper-endemic in the State and cases are reported throughout the year, the incidence peaks twice every year, during the two monsoon seasons. The panic over dengue and the focused attention on vector-control activities usually eclipses the fact that leptospirosis also peaks, every time the rains begin.
Though the number of cases may not be as dramatic as in the case of dengue, in terms of mortality, leptospirosis has always been ahead, with the disease often presenting with serious multi-organ complications.
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“We have instructed all districts to keep an eye on leptospirosis and malaria incidence during this season and to continue the anti-dengue activities. Dengue becomes a problem when the rain is intermittent, but continuous rain means more of leptospirosis cases. We are slightly worried that the grassroots-level activities for control of infectious diseases could be affected as the heat of local body elections have just set in. But at the PHC and CHC level, the Health Department’s disease surveillance and control activities will continue,” R. Ramesh, Additional Director of Health Services (Public Health), said.
When compared to 2013, when there had been an explosion of dengue cases, with serologically confirmed dengue cases alone standing at 7,938 cases (suspected cases of dengue being over 25,000), the State had fared better in 2014.
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Dengue case already reported
This year till date, according to the integrated disease surveillance project, over 11,329 suspected cases of dengue fever has already been reported in the State, including 35 suspected dengue deaths.
The serologically confirmed cases of dengue stands at 3,240, but then during an outbreak, only a fraction of the cases is confirmed in labs. The report also puts the number of suspected leptospirosis cases this year at 1,615, with 63 suspected deaths
Interesting fact
Another interesting fact has been that of the 136 suspected chikungunya cases reported in the State this year, 109 cases have been reported from Thiruvananthapuram. However, the cases were scattered throughout the district and there were no outbreaks, health officials said.