India: Pre-monsoon diseases on the rise in Alappuzha

Kerala

Jun 03, 2010

ALAPPUZHA: Even as the south-west monsoon is playing hide and seek with the State, seasonal contagious diseases have started making their presence felt across the district.

While health authorities insist that there is nothing yet to worry about, they agree that precautionary measures have been set into motion. K.M. Sirabudin, District Medical Officer, said a campaign against vector-borne and viral diseases, with focus on dengue, Leptospirosis (rat fever) and jaundice was already on.

The public had been asked to observe at least one dry day a week, making sure that there were no avenues for mosquitoes to breed with steps being taken to avoid stagnation of water in any form around the house.

Fogging operations too were being undertaken in most areas, with special focus in four wards in the Kayamkulam municipality, from where six suspected of cases of dengue were reported recently.

Dengue cases

Of these, one had been confirmed and the patient was out of danger, Mr. Sirabudin, who visited the area on Wednesday, told The Hindu.

However, he denied reports in the vernacular media that the district was in the grip of viral fever and that there were a couple of deaths due to fever.

“We have not received any confirmed official reports on any such case,” he said.

Enquiries at primary health centres however, confirmed that there was a rise in the number of viral fever cases being reported at these centres, most of them on the coastal belt of the district. PHCs and a couple of private nursing homes at Chettikad, Kalavoor, Arthunkal and Muhamma have seen at least 100 persons each, most of them complaining of throat pain, shivering and body pains, in the last one week alone.

High incidence of viral fever has been reported from the Kuttanad region, Mararikulam and Ambalapuzha areas.

Leptospirosis cases too have been reported from various regions of the district. According to Health department sources, 27 cases of the fever were reported from January so far, with three deaths as well.

Most of the Leptospirosis cases were reported among labourers participating in canal de-silting/paddy field preparation works under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes.