India battles mosquito-borne diseases
Pastor Dale Morgan
Saturday October 14, 8:37 PM
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India battles mosquito-borne diseases*
Indian health authorities are battling to curtail an outbreak of dengue
and chikungunya mosquito-borne diseases which has struck more than 6,000
people and claimed 92 lives.
"So far, we have information about 4,875 cases and 94 deaths from
dengue. There have been 1,610 cases of chikungunya," said an official
manning the federal health ministry control room Saturday.
With more than 1,350 cases, New Delhi and its neighbouring states were
the worst hit by dengue, a viral infection transmitted to humans through
bites of the female Aedes mosquitoes.
The disease causes a severe, flu-like illness and internal bleeding,
including brain haemorrhage.
Several thousand officials have been going door-to-door to spray
insecticides to check the breeding of mosquitoes.
Doctors at the country's top hospital, the All-India Institute for
Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said the situation was "alarming" and there
was no let-up in the deluge of people coming in fearing they had
contracted the virus.
"We screened 1,100 samples yesterday (Friday). New cases are coming in
even now. We have 150 doctors only dealing with dengue cases.
Everything, apart from emergency services, has been put on hold," said
Anil Sharma, spokesman of AIIMS doctors' association.
The hospital has set aside 300 beds for dengue patients.
An outbreak of chikungunya -- also a viral disease transmitted through
the Aedes aegypti mosquito -- hads affected 1,610 people nationwide.
The federal government said no one had died of chikungunya, but the
government of southern coastal state of Kerala said last week that the
disease had claimed 86 lives.
After a spate of deaths, the federal government had asked experts to
look into the cause. The World Health Organisation's India
representative Salim Habayeb Wednesday told the government that the
deaths in Kerala were not attributable to chikungunya, the Press Trust
of India reported.
"The deaths were due to co-infections and underlying causes," Habayeb
was quoted as saying.
Industry body the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India
warned that the spread of dengue could hurt Indian tourism just as the
season was entering its height.
"If the ongoing dengue menace is not curbed with preventive measures,
the chamber apprehends a massive decline in tourists arrivals in its
peak season which had already commenced," the body said in a statement.
Last week, Malaysia advised its citizens not to visit areas in India hit
by chikungunya, the Press Trust of India reported.
Chikungunya -- a Swahili word for stooped walk reflecting the physique
of a person suffering from the disease -- causes high fever and
headache, but is rarely fatal, according to the World Health Organisation.
Checking the proliferation of mosquitoes is the main preventive measure
for both dengue and chikungunya, which strike during the rainy season.
Mosquito-borne illnesses affect tens of thousands of Indians during the
rainy season.
Last year, 1,400 people, mostly children, died of Japanese encephalitis
in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
A dengue outbreak in Delhi claimed more than 400 lives in 1996 when
10,000 people contracted the virus.