Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Stress on vector control

Staff Reporter

Central team to tour Pathanamthitta, Kottayam

IN ACTION: Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy interacting with the Central medical team in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. - Photo: S.Gopakumar

Thiruvananthapuram: A high-level team deputed by the Union Ministry of Health to study the spread of chikungunya in the State will visit many hospitals and primary health centres in Pathanamthitta and Kottayam in the coming days.

B.K. Prasad, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Health, who heads the team, told presspersons here on Monday that the State had been having recurrent episodes of vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever and this time, chikungunya, and while these should be preventable, the geographic and climatic conditions in the State made it difficult to check the vector population.

Mr. Prasad said National Institute of Communicable Diseases(NICD) experts would be testing blood samples collected at Pathanamthitta for chikungunya virus and see if any other viruses was involved.

Chikungunya, once it affected a population, conferred it with life-long immunity and hence, it spread from one geographic area to the other. This was a reason why the virus, which affected thousands in the coastal districts of Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram, had now chosen to surface in the hilly districts of Pathanamthitta and Kottayam, he said.

Kerala, where it rained throughout the year and which had huge tracts of plantations, was much suitable for the breeding of the Aedes species of mosquitoes.

In urban areas, this vector was found to be a container breeder and hence, sustained and intensive household initiatives were required to check vector population, he said.

The team is being joined by experts in NICD's regional office at Kozhikode and the Centre for Research in Medical Entomology, a division of Indian Council for Medical Research, Madurai.

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