By Shalini Pant
IANS
New Delhi : Many Indian states have sounded an alert for chikungunya, a deadly mosquito-borne viral disease that has claimed 40 lives in Kerala and laid down 7,600 in the country.
Even states that have not reported any case are not taking chances ever since the disease erupted in Kerala towards May-end and began claiming unsuspecting victims who initially took it to be just ordinary fever.
Chikungunya is a viral fever that is spread by the aedes aegypti mosquito, which bites during daytime. The disease can prove fatal if not treated on time. The usual symptoms include high fever, headache, nausea, fatigue, swelling of limbs and arthritis.
No state has been hit as badly as Kerala, where a staggering 7,000 people are warded in hospitals and 40 patients have already succumbed to the disease, sparking panic.
The failure to quarantine the victims in the state has apparently caused the disease to spread.
The beleaguered authorities say they are doing their best.
Kerala Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi said the government had allotted about Rs.50 million to battle chikungunya and a dozen medical teams from the army and navy had been deployed to contain the outbreak.
The Indian Army Wednesday flew in three cold fogging machines from Pune's Armed Forces Medical College to Kerala. This is the first time that these machines are being used in south India to tackle mosquito breeding.
In desperation, the government has also roped in members of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) to unleash a week-long cleanliness drive in Kerala.
In neighbouring Karnataka, officials Thursday reported 482 suspected chikungunya cases from 21 villages spread over eight districts.
"These are only suspected cases," said G. Shivaram, the joint director for communicable diseases. Karnataka has set up health camps in villages bordering Kerala to check affected people from entering the state.
Tamil Nadu, which too shares a long border with Kerala, has reported six suspected chikungunya cases. The state has begun fumigating all trains coming from Kerala.
Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran said: "People arriving with symptoms of chikunguniya are being admitted to government hospitals in Tamil Nadu."
The government is moving to appoint 3,850 temporary field health workers to help eliminate mosquitoes, sanctioning Rs.71 million for the drive.
It has also initiated steps to rear Kampuchea, a type of fish that eats mosquito larvae and helps eradicate the mosquito that spreads the disease.
Andhra Pradesh, which last year reported 80,000 cases, is fortunately free from chikungunya. But the authorities have launched a door-to-door sanitation and mosquito-control campaign in high-risk zones.
Two confirmed cases have also been reported in far away Orissa and 22 in Kolhapur district in Maharashtra while one woman is warded in a hospital in the national capital New Delhi.
In Orissa, M.M. Pradhan of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, told IANS that blood samples of 87 people were sent to the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata for tests.
In Maharashtra, preventive measures are being with particular care in a radius of five kilometres surrounding the seven villages in Kolhapur where the disease is actively present.
Sangli and Solapur districts in the vicinity are also preparing to battle any possible outbreak. Kolhapur's health officer T.A. More has urged people in the region not to store water in utensils and tanks.
With Delhi figuring on the chikungunya map, the administrations in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have put their health departments on high alert.
"The National Institute of Communicable Diseases has confirmed the first case. After an emergency meeting with the civic authorities and health officials, we have alerted hospitals across the city," Delhi's Municipal Health Officer N.K. Yadav told IANS.
Health officials in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have been asked to watch out for any patient showing signs of the disease.
(With inputs from Prashant K. Nanda, Jaideep Sarin, Sanu George, Anil Sharma, Papri Sri Raman, Mohammed Shafeeq, Sujeet Kumar, Shyam Pandharipande, Sanjay Sharma and Fakir Balaji)