The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : When whole communities face ruin The Vector trail

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Friday, Jul 20, 2007
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

When whole communities face ruin The Vector trail

C. Maya

Photo: S. Mahinsha

AGONISING WAIT: Patients queue up for OP ticket at the Chittar Primary Health Centre in Pathanamthitta.

Thiruvananthapuram: It is pouring at Chittar, about 30 km from Pathanamthitta town, on the Sabarimala route. The hilly route is picturesque; one can see the swollen Maniyar below and vast tracts of pineapple plantations.

It was in Chittar grama panchayat area that chikungunya first broke out in Pathanamthitta district this year. The tiny mini primary health centre in the village was hardly equipped to handle the huge, unprecedented influx of patients when viral-fever cases began to be reported in the hundreds in mid-April. The district health administration had to open a temporary inpatient unit, deploy more doctors and nurses, and arrange for truckloads of medicines and IV fluids.

“Over 1,000 viral fever cases used to be reported daily in the OP [outpatient unit] then. The 200-odd patients who come to the clinic now are mostly suffering from persistent arthralgia [joint pain],” says Subhagan, medical officer in-charge. Most of the affected were residents of the Pambini and Anchekkar Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe colonies.

The community here, with most people of working age employed as rubber tappers or manual labourers, was not very poor. But the chikungunya outbreak changed all that. Almost all households here now depend on free rations provided by the Government and charity clubs.

Though the outbreak is under control now, it could be months or over a year before this village recovers from the social and economic trauma the crippling disease has left behind Till about two weeks ago, “kanji” (gruel) was being given free twice a day at the primary health centre by political parties.

“There are 500-odd houses in these two colonies and every family had at least two or three members down with chikungunya. None in Chittar has been able to go for work for the past two months. Rubber tappers here used to earn a daily wage of about Rs. 125. Many who tried to get back to work after the first bout of fever are now down with severe arthralgia,” says K.S. Somasekharan, resident of Pambini. His mother, Radhamma, and daughter too were down with chikungunya. “It has been a month, but the joints are so stiff and swollen that even getting out of bed is a painful task,” Ms. Radhamma says. Recurring bouts of fever after chikungunya are something that all patients complain about. “Good nutrition and proper rest are important for recovering from chikungunya. Unfortunately, for those subsisting on daily wages, these are luxuries they cannot afford.

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