The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Students sought to be enlisted in the drive against chikungunya

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Saturday, Oct 21, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Students sought to be enlisted in the drive against chikungunya

Staff Reporter

Community medicine professor traces history of the disease, outlines preventive steps

CHENNAI : When N.C. Appavoo, professor and head, Department of Community Medicine, Sri Balaji Medical College, began a power-point presentation on the history and means of preventing chikungunya at the Science City, there was a rustle of notebooks and the students from several Government schools in the City were all ears.

And they continued to maintain the state of rapt attention throughout his hour-long talk at the Science City Auditorium on the `Role of Students in Prevention and Control of Chikungunya.'

The self-limiting disease, which persists for 15 days with or without treatment, was first identified in Tanzania in 1952, the Professor said. It then spread through Bangkok, Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka and the Phillipines.

In February 2005, 2.58 lakh persons were affected by the disease in the Reunion Islands, and 3,500 in Mauritius. In December 2005, 80000 people were affected in Karnataka and 2000 in Andhra Pradesh in 2006. The disease was first identified in Calcutta in 1963, 1964 in Madras and 1973 in Maharashtra where the cases numbered several lakhs.

In Tamil Nadu, all districts barring the Nilgiris and Tiruvannamalai have been affected by the disease, he said. The Nilgiris does not have any incidence of chikungunya because of the cold weather conditions there. The disease has not affected Tiruvannamalai, where even malaria and filarial are prevalent, because of the awareness generated through students, Prof. Appavoo said.

First report

In Tamil Nadu, 1063 villages out of 58,105, 26 out of 104 Municipalities and the Salem and Chennai Corporations have recorded incidence of chikungunya, he said. The first report of the disease this time was given on March 20 at Vellore by the Christian Medical College. While the transmission of the disease could have been from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the highest number of cases was reported from Vellore (6,916), Namakkal (11,498) and Krishnagiri (5,747), he said, quoting from Department of Public Health figures.

Describing the disease, he said the viral fever resembled dengue by group IV RNA arbovirus of the famili Togaviridae, genus - Alphavirus and species chikungunya, transmitted by the Aedis aegypti mosquito.

The symptoms are fever, headache, joint pain and swelling, causing debilitation. Back pain, photophobia and rashes also surface. No antibiotics are needed for the disease, which subsides in 10 to 15 days. He clarified that there are no complications and the disease does not cause fatalities.

The disease can be prevented by cleanliness in and around the home. Even five ml. of fresh water is enough for the mosquito to breed — a fallen leaf, which has collected rainwater, air-conditioner and refrigerator ducts and water holders or open containers storing water. Anti-pyretic or analgesics could be taken for chikungunya, he said warning that aspirin should be avoided as it could spell danger.

Health challenge

Chikungunya posed a public health challenge as the virus strain shared molecular features that differed from strains involved in the earlier outbreaks.

P. Iyamperumal, Executive Director, Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre said that the lecture was presented to students as research revealed that an idea put in the mind of one student was taken to 40 people. J. Devasenapathy and Seema Tiku, Scientific Officers, Science City also spoke.

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