The Hindu : Front Page : Viral fever cases in State continue to go up

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Tuesday, Jun 05, 2007
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Viral fever cases in State continue to go up

C. Maya

The vectortrail Chikungunya caseload stabilising: Health Department

P.K. Sreemathy stresses the need for vector-control measures.

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as viral fever cases continue to go up in the districts of Kottayam and Pathanamthitta, the chikungunya caseload seems to be stabilising, said senior Health Department officials here on Monday.

As on June 2, 122 cases of chikungunya has been confirmed in the State, out of which 69 cases are from Pathanamthitta. Even though viral fever cases are reported to be going up in the plantation areas in Kottayam, so far only two cases each of dengue and chikungunya has been confirmed there.

Vector-control

The Health Department is concentrating on intensifying vector-control activities so that chikungunya does not spread to more districts. However, source reduction or elimination of breeding grounds of mosquitoes in the vast tracts of pineapple and rubber plantations in the hilly districts continues to pose a problem.

Confirmed cases of chikungunya has been reported from nine districts so far. Sporadic cases of dengue fever are also being reported from most southern districts — as has been happening every year. Till June 2, 122 cases of dengue fever has been reported from the State, 73 cases being from Thiruvananthapuram. Two cases of co-infection of dengue and chikungunya too have been reported from Pathanamthitta.

While the dengue situation is not alarming right now, the Health Department anticipates an increase in cases in the coming months.

Last year too, the State had followed a similar pattern, with dengue cases showing a downward trend in the first half of the year and then suddenly going up, to register a total of 968 cases by the year-end.

A team of experts from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi, which had visited many fever-affected southern districts last week, had pointed out the fact that dengue was becoming endemic in the State, especially in Thiruvananthapuram.

Action plans

They had suggested that special action plans for round-the-year fever surveillance and vector control be put into action so that the picture could be changed. The first dengue episode was reported from Kerala in 1997 from Kottayam, when 14 deaths were reported. Since then, dengue has been occurring annually in the State.

Till 2001, the disease was more or less confirmed to Kottayam and by 2004 it had spread to all districts.

In 2003, the State had the highest number of dengue cases in the country, with 3,546 cases and 68 deaths.

According to a report by the Centre for Research in Medical Entomology, Madurai, Kerala is the first State ever when all districts were affected by dengue fever for three consecutive years.

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