Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Friday confirmed that the disease outbreak in Cherthala taluk of Kerala was chikungunya and assured Central assistance to the Kerala government to tackle the problem.
Dr Ramadoss, who arrived at Kochi early Friday morning, visited the Thuravoor community health centre in Cherthala accompanied by the parliamentarians K S Manoj and C S Sujatha and state Health Minister P K Sreemathy. He went around and interacted with patients for about half an hour. He also visited the Chertala taluk hospital.
The minister spoke to the patients and enquired about their health. Both hospitals were overflowing with patients with two to three of them sharing a bed and some even forced to lie on the floor.
Later, talking to reporters at Thuravoor, Dr Ramadoss confirmed the outbreak of chikungunya in Cherthala taluk. Nearly 800 to 900 people have been affected by fever and of these, 60 samples have tested positive for Chikungunya, a mosquito-borne viral disease.
There had been some confusion on whether the fever, which claimed over 80 lives in the taluk in the past few weeks, was Chikungunya, as the fever did not lead to fatalities in the other southern states, which were also hit by an outbreak.
Asked about availability of facilities in Cherthala to deal with the crisis, Dr Ramadoss said no local hospital was equipped to deal with the outbreak of the disease at such a large-scale. So the Centre will give all possible help to the state government to deal with the situation.
The minister announced a special package for the state to combat chickungunya and said that the Centre will supply fogging machines, mosquito nets and testing kits to the state.
"The Centre will supply fogging machines, mosquito nets and testing kits," the minister told media persons in Alapuzha district after visiting the two hospitals.
This is the first time that the Centre is supplying fogging machines, he said, adding that the National Institute of Virology, Pune, will supply the test kits.
The Virology Institute in Alapuzha will also be upgraded and efforts are being made to have district vector officials in all districts in the country, Ramadoss said.
Chickungunya besides primarily being a sanitation and hygiene problem, was also a medical problem and there was need to create more awareness through Information Education Campaign (IEC) in affected parts. Asked if he was optimistic of controlling the disease, the minister replied in the affirmative. "We are optimistic of controlling the disease, which is coming after 32 years."
Stressing upon the need to create public awareness, the minister said in Karnataka the local bodies, panchayat leaders and officials had initiated an awareness campaign in 20 districts about chickungunya, which resulted in these areas escaping from its outbreak.
Kerala was a state with peculiar ecological and environmental conditions with large water bodies. So it takes little longer time to control waterborne diseases, he said.
A nine-member Central team visiting Cherthala, which included officials of the World Health Organisation, also confirmed that the disease was Chikungunya. The team has been in Cherthala for the past two days. State Health Department Additional Director, Dr N Raghavan, speaking on behalf of the team said there was high density of Aedes mosquito in Cherthala.
While the normal index at other places was ten, but at Cherthala it was 25 to 30. He warned that the area could be hit by a dengue outbreak too. The team stressed the need for an immediate mosquito-eradication drive.
On Thursday, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan had taken strong exception to Ramadoss's statement that no death had occurred in the country due to Chikungunya while the state was battling the disease. Expressing 'surprise' at his statement, Achuthanandan has said he was at a loss to know on what basis Ramadoss had made the statement and wanted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to restrain his colleagues from making such statements.
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