The Hindu : Front Page : Rise in dengue cases causes concern

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 30, 2005

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Rise in dengue cases causes concern

M. Gunasekaran

Municipality to carry out mass cleaning programme

TIRUPUR: A 12-year-old girl's death due to dengue and rise in dengue cases have led to alert against an outbreak.

Though municipal authorities deny reports of dengue, private medical practitioners confirm they have treated proven cases and even referred many people to hospitals in Coimbatore.

With the Municipal Health Officer's post lying vacant for one-and-a-half years and that of the Commissioner for six months, the Opposition blamed the rise in number of cases due to lack of preventive measures.

An inconsolable Lakshmi Narasimhan of Rayapuram, father of Induja who died at a private hospital in Coimbatore due to dengue, says: ``The doctors told us that our daughter was afflicted with dengue. Her classmate who was also affected is recuperating at the hospital.''

Hospitals in Coimbatore say cases have been referred from Tirupur. Some of them have been discharged.

A. Mohamed Shafiullah, consultant paediatrician at K.N. Children's Hospital, says he has treated around 20 proven dengue cases in a fortnight. Children — from one-month-old to 13 years old — have been affected. At present three children are recuperating at the hospital.

Though sporadic cases were reported in this town over the last eight years what causes concern now is that the virus is virulent.

Rapid urbanisation and the resultant shortage of water that leads to storage (in open containers) is major reason, he points out.

Another paediatrician points out that hospitals in Tirupur, including the Government Hospital, do not have sufficient paediatric intensive care facility to treat the cases. As a result, around 50 suspected cases had been referred to hospitals in Coimbatore.

The mosquito (Aedes aegypti) that carries the dengue virus breeds in fresh water stored in containers.

Symptoms of dengue include sudden high temperature, severe headache, pain in the eye, joints and muscles, nausea and dryness in the mouth.

Supervised by the Deputy Director of Health Services (Tirupur), M. Thangaraj, staff of the Health Department and municipality sprayed mosquito repellent on Wednesday.

The Municipal Chairman, M.N. Palanisamy, said the local body has enough stock of the repellent and would take all precautionary measures.

The Municipality has decided to carry out a mass cleaning programme. The civic body and health officials have asked people not to store water in open containers and to drain water from flowerpots, coconut shells and tyres.

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