Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad   

Chikungunya cases on the rise

Staff Correspondent

Rush at medical camps organised for distributing free medicines

IN PANIC: People rush to collect free medicine for chikungunya being distributed at Old Hubli on Thursday.

HUBLI: The number of people affected by chikungunya in Dharwad district has crossed 6,000 in Dharwad district, sources said.

While in Dharwad city, there were 242 confirmed cases so far, in the rural areas of Dharwad taluk, 596 chikungunya cases were reported. In Hubli city, 297 cases were reported and in Hubli taluk 725 cases.

As many 1,005 cases in Kalghatgi taluk, 1,812 cases in Kundagol taluk and 1,339 cases in Navalgund taluk were reported.

Although, both district health officials and health officials of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation have taken up several measures to contain the epidemic and conducted awareness campaigns, there is not much improvement in the situation.

Instead, there has been drastic increase in the number of cases of chikungunya in the last fortnight. In the absence of any vaccination and only symptomatic treatment available to patients, the disease has restricted thousands of people to the four walls of their houses.

While official sources put the number of cases in Dharwad district at 6,061, doctors doing private practice said that the number was even bigger as many did not go to government hospitals for treatment.

Meanwhile, a mad rush was seen at medical camps held for distributing free medicines (especially homoeopathic medicine) to people suffering from chikungunya.

However, the development has led to confusion among the general public as some of the office-bearers of Indian Medical Association (IMA) have said that no specific allopathic medicine was available for treatment of chikungunya and even expressed doubts about the effect of the "free medicine" being distributed by various organisations in twin cities.

Some of the homoeopaths themselves have expressed doubts about the "free medicine" being distributed in camps as homoeopathic medicine.

In the wake of this, M.G. Hiremath, director of Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) Hospital said that within a few days, a meeting of experts would be called to check the impact of the free medicine on patients.

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