The Hindu Business Line : Defence personnel fan out in epidemic-hit Kerala districts

On a war-footing
Joint medical camps, fogging carried out.
Two naval medical teams operating in Kottayam, Idukki.
Various units from the Army have reached Pathanamthitta.

Thiruvananthapuram June 10 Expert medical teams from the Army and the Navy have fanned out in four districts of the State, following a near-epidemic outbreak of suspected chikungunya and dengue fever.

The first team from the defence services reached Thiruvananthapuram and Kottayam on Sunday morning while the second took command of the Idukki and Pathanamthitta districts by the evening. The teams will be functionally and operationally ready by Monday.

Meanwhile, a 35-member Army medical team from the Thiruvananthapuram Cantonment reached Amboori in the rural outback of the district and examined patients. Four doctors and paramedics from the State Health Department accompanied the team.

Joint medical camps were conducted in those panchayats where a bulk of the affliction was reported. Fogging was carried out at Amboori and the immediate neighbourhood.

Medical team

Two separate medical teams from the Naval Base in Kochi moved in to Kottayam and Idukki districts. Fogging was carried out at Pampady and Vazhoor in Kottayam. The Naval doctors examined patients at the Government hospital in Pampady.

The medical team that arrived in Idukki will visit some of the worst affected areas in the district on Monday. Various units from the Army reached Pathanamthitta on Sunday evening. They have chalked out a plan of action that will see them launch a combined drive on Monday itself.

The decision to induct defence services personnel into the State for dealing with an epidemic-like situation was taken after the Health Minister, Ms P.K. Sreemathy, made a request to the Defence Minister, Mr A.K. Antony.

Ms Sreemathy later conferred with the Union Health Minister, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, who has since despatched a high-level team under the Director-General of Health Services, Dr S.P. Agarwal, into the State. The team has landed in Thiruvananthapuram, and held a round of talks with Ms Sreemathy.

Casualty

The chikungunya virus is spread through mosquito bite and causes a non-fatal, self-limiting illness, marked by high fever, headache, severe joint pain, rashes and nausea. There is no official statistics of the number of infections in the State but a ballpark figure puts it in `tens of thousands' since January this year. At least 70 casualties have been reported.

Chikungunya confers a patient with life-long immunity and hence spreads from one geographic area to the other. In this manner, the mosquitoes have in recent times migrated from the coastal districts of Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram to the hilly terrains of Pathanamthitta and Kottayam.