The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Do not panic, chikungunya will not kill

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 30, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Do not panic, chikungunya will not kill

K.V. Prasad

But, report suspected cases immediately

COIMBATORE: With the official confirmation that chikungunya has hit Coimbatore also, health officials in the district have a twin-task on hand: prevent mosquito breeding and also panic among the people.

Awareness

Official sources in the Department of Public Health said on Tuesday that the first and most important fact people should know was that chikungunya was not fatal; it did not kill people like dengue.

People, however, should not be complacent. Though not as severe and widespread as in Salem and Namakkal, people here should seek medical help as soon as they begin experiencing fever and joint pain. The pain would be severe if the patient had low immunity.

Low immunity

Health officials sounded upset with poor inflow of information on the cases. Affected people went in for over-the-counter medicines from pharmacies and failed to consult doctors. They need not wait to see whether the fever and joint pain persisted beyond three days. As more cases were being reported, it would be better for them to get treated immediately after the symptoms showed up.

Health machinery

At the same time, private practitioners too should report the cases to the Deputy Director of Health Services or the nearest primary health care centre, especially when there was a spurt in cases in a particular colony or village.

Only then could the Government health machinery take effective control measures, official sources said. Poor flow of information now prevented quick identification of the affected areas, they said.

The major risk involved in not reporting such cases was that an entire affected area would go unnoticed and the disease could spread fast. The sources also said that at the same time it was unwise to describe an entire village as affected when there were only three to four cases.

Precautionary measures

Even as people need not panic, they should take some basic precautionary measures to prevent the breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmitted the disease-causing alpha virus.

As the mosquito bred in fresh water, its stagnation in grinding stones kept in the open and also discarded tyres, coconut shells and broken plastic containers should be avoided.

Elaborate plan

Storage of water in open cisterns such as cement tubs or metal drums should be avoided. Since the mosquito bit only during day, it was better to use mosquito nets for infants during this time and not just during night.

As the mosquitoes rested in the clothes hung from the holders in the wall or stands in bedrooms, keeping them in the open was as good as asking for chikungunya. The simple message was do not give any room for these mosquitoes either at home or in the environs.

An elaborate plan to eliminate the mosquitoes was being given final shape at a meeting of health officials at Chennai on Tuesday, the sources said.

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