Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Dengue endemic in district

Staff Reporter

Central team moots special action plan

Thiruvananthapuram: The experts' team touring various fever-affected districts in the State has suggested that the Government draw up a special action plan to check the recurring episodes of dengue fever in the district.

Two members of the Central team, Jagvir Singh and R.S. Sharma, senior officials of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NIDC), New Delhi, who toured several parts of the district on Thursday said that dengue had become endemic in Thiruvananthapuram. At least one or two cases were reported from the district every month. Since 2004, nearly 50 to 60 per cent of the total dengue cases in the State were being reported from Thiruvananthapuram.

The presence of the vector which spreads both dengue and chikungunya - the Aedes aegypti and A. albopictus mosquitoes - had been established in the district since 2000. This was the second consecutive year that the chikungunya virus had become active here. Unless intensive vector control programmes were sustained throughout the year, there was a distinct possibility of chikungunya also becoming endemic here, the experts' team warned.

Six cases of chikungunya have been confirmed in the district now, with serum samples of three persons from Aamachal also testing positive for the disease. A total of 36 suspected cases of chikungunya were reported from the district till May 30. Nearly 350 cases of viral fever were reported from Kuttichal and Poovachal panchayats last month.

When compared to the outbreak at Vizhinjam and adjoining panchayats last year, when nearly 8,300 suspected cases of chikungunya were reported (four cases were confirmed serologically), the incidence this year was `mild' and `well under control', a senior health department official said.

"Last year, we were taken by surprise and had not reckoned with the huge number of patients who turned up in hospitals. As chikungunya was being reported in the State for the first time, we had little experience on how to check the spread of the disease. This time, preventive measures were launched early as a pre-monsoon epidemic preparedness exercise and we have also been able to contain the spread of chikungunya," he added.

However, the NICD experts are known to have expressed more concern about the high case load of dengue fever in the district year after year. Chikungunya is considered a self-limiting disease which is not known to cause any fatality, while dengue fever can become haemorrhagic, leading to casualties. This year, dengue fever has shown a downward trend in the district, with about 70 cases reported till May end.

Vector control

The district medical administration on Friday conducted medical camps at Anacode, Uppanachankala and Konnikonam areas in Poovachal and Kuttichal panchayats from where chikungunya cases were reported.

A sum of Rs.4 lakh has been released from the National Rural Health Mission for conducting vector control activities. MBBS graduates doing compulsory rural posting with the Health Service have been redeployed here and additional nurses too have been provided to the Vellarada and Perumkadavila community health centres to tackle the situation. Fogging, spraying, and vector studies are being carried out in the area. Mosquito nets are being provided to the fever-affected to protect them from mosquito bites and thus check the spread of chikungunya.

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