BANGALORE: Although the Government claims to have taken adequate steps to prevent the spread of chikungunya, there seems to be no respite from the disease for the people. Reports of outbreak of the disease continue to pour in from different places.

Minister for Health and Family Welfare R. Ashok told The Hindu on Wednesday that nearly six lakh people had been affected by the disease and it had spread to rural and urban areas. Many employees of the Health Department had gone on leave in the past few days saying they themselves had been infected. There had also been cases of people mistaking all viral infections with similar symptoms for chikungunya, he said.

After the conference of Health Ministers of the southern States to be held here on July 30, a delegation would proceed to New Delhi to urge the Centre to set up a research centre for communicable diseases in Bangalore. It had also been decided to seek financial assistance from the Centre to fight the disease. The Centre would be urged to allocate more funds for the health sector in the budget in the coming years, he said.

According to Health Department officials, about 5.83 lakh people are down with chikungunya in all the 27 districts. It was much more than the 2. 86 lakh people reported to have been affected a month ago. Over 4,148 samples had been collected from all the districts and over 200 of them had tested positive, they said.

Mr. Ashok said the Government had taken steps to contain the spread of the disease. It had released nearly Rs. 5 crore for supply of medicines in the districts affected by chikungunya, he said.

A Health Control Room would be set up soon in the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services for monitoring the spread of communicable diseases and to supervise availability of drugs in taluk and district hospitals. It would also help in reaching to hospitals those injured in road accidents, he said.

Under the 12th State Finance Commission, funds were granted to purchase 77 ambulances. Twenty-seven ambulances would be given to district hospitals in the first phase in a weekThe department had also decided to reconstitute health committees of district and taluk hospitals for utilising funds collected in the form of user charges.

The district in-charge Minister would head the district hospital committee and the MLA concerned the taluk hospital committee.

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