Chikungynya pandemic

Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease and there is no effective drug to treat it

Chikungunya continues to make life hazardous for people, but the response from the health department towards the outbreak lacks vigour. Initially the outbreak was limited to the capital but incidences of this viral fever are now being reported from various parts of the country. According to experts as reported in this newspaper yesterday the disease’s present spell may continue till September depending on rainfall. 

Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease and there is no effective drug to treat it. Doctors usually give relievers to tackle symptoms such as fever and pain. In this particular viral attack, though the fever disappears after three or four days, the pain in joints and muscle remains, often extending to several weeks, even for months. The patients who were affected by the disease complained extreme fatigue and weakness coupled with pain once they recovered from fever. 

As a healthy person gets the disease through certain kinds of mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus—these mosquitoes are also carriers of dengue fever—awareness about chikungunya facts could greatly help the people to avert the debilitating condition the disease is creating in patients. But we have hardly seen any campaign programmes from the government to raise awareness among people. 

Our health systems are beset with various problems: one of them is unavailability of reliable figures on diseases. We have seen this in the case of current chikungunya pandemic also. Though the disease is baffling almost every family in the capital, the sad thing is that the government’s response to the disease seems to be planned by the number of patients—around 1000—who were admitted to the city’s various hospitals. But the actual number of patients in the capital could be in thousands, even lakhs. 

Another reason for the poor response to the disease could be that the disease is not lethal. But the fact of the matter is, a great number of patients are just suffering, and the disease may spell disaster for babies and old people and people with certain health conditions such as heart disease. That is why the health department’s neglect shown to the disease cannot be excused. 

The poor performance of two city corporations should also come to the focus. True, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus usually spread through accumulated clean water in things such as refrigerators, flower tubs or plastic bottles, the point here is city dwellers are living with various species of mosquitoes and suffering their bites, but the city corporations seem to be oblivious of this. We have not seen corporations’ effort to kill mosquitoes through fogger machines for a long time.

 

 

Chikungynya pandemic

Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease and there is no effective drug to treat it

Chikungunya continues to make life hazardous for people, but the response from the health department towards the outbreak lacks vigour. Initially the outbreak was limited to the capital but incidences of this viral fever are now being reported from various parts of the country. According to experts as reported in this newspaper yesterday the diseases present spell may continue till September depending on rainfall. Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease and there is no effective drug to treat it. Doctors usually give relievers to tackle symptoms such as fever and pain. In this particular viral attack, though the fever disappears after three or four days, the pain in joints and muscle remains, often extending to several weeks, even for months. The patients who were affected by the disease complained extreme fatigue and weakness coupled with pain once they recovered from fever. As a healthy person gets the disease through certain kinds of mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictusthese mosquitoes are also carriers of dengue feverawareness about chikungunya facts could greatly help the people to avert the debilitating condition the disease is creating in patients. But we have hardly seen any campaign programmes from the government to raise awareness among people. Our health systems are beset with various problems: one of them is unavailability of reliable figures on diseases. We have seen this in the case of current chikungunya pandemic also. Though the disease is baffling almost every family in the capital, the sad thing is that the governments response to the disease seems to be planned by the number of patientsaround 1000who were admitted to the citys various hospitals. But the actual number of patients in the capital could be in thousands, even lakhs. Another reason for the poor response to the disease could be that the disease is not lethal. But the fact of the matter is, a great number of patients are just suffering, and the disease may spell disaster for babies and old people and people with certain health conditions such as heart disease. That is why the health departments neglect shown to the disease cannot be excused. The poor performance of two city corporations should also come to the focus. True, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus usually spread through accumulated clean water in things such as refrigerators, flower tubs or plastic bottles, the point here is city dwellers are living with various species of mosquitoes and suffering their bites, but the city corporations seem to be oblivious of this. We have not seen corporations effort to kill mosquitoes through fogger machines for a long time.