Kerala government does little as viral fever, deaths continue

18 July, 2007:

The viral fever epidemic that has been ravaging Kerala for many months has re-emerged in some districts of the state after having shown some signs of subsiding. The state government is doing precious little even at this late stage to combat the plague.

Over the last six months, around 19,000 cases of suspected chikungunya have been reported from across the state, out of a total of over 800,000 people hit by the unprecedented outbreak of viral fever.

Chikungunya, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and first detected in 1955 in Africa, had in 2006 caused the deaths of some 200 people in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

The name of the disease is derived from the Swahili word for ‘stooped walk,’ reflecting the physique of a person suffering from the disease, the symptoms of which include sudden fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, and joint pain.

The scourge, besides killing a number of those affected, has left tens of thousands who have survived with a convalescence that extends from three months to one year, and in deep debt.

The economy of Kerala, especially of the worst-affected districts, has been severely stricken as recovering patients find it too weak to work for a long time. Kerala’s plantations are suffering from an acute shortage of workforce.

Reports from across Kerala speak of thousands of families, particularly daily-wage earners, reeling under penury and debt resulting from prolonged medical treatment, and inability to work for a long time.

The most common and distinct disabilities during convalescence include acute difficulty in sitting, lying down, standing straight, walking as well as general weakness of mind and body.

The worst-hit by the devastating epidemic are those who belong to the middle-class and the poor.

To add to the existing woes, a new kind of epidemic known as ‘tomato fever’ has reared its head amidst suspected rat fever, chikungunya, and dengue fever in many districts of Kerala.

Reports say that nearly 3,000 people either have been affected or are showing the symptoms of tomato fever, which are tomato-like boils with itching and even worms coming out of the wounds.

Some doctors say that the tomato fever could be an after-effect of chikungunya.

Even after so many months of the epidemic wreaking havoc with tens of thousands of lives, the epidemic, known by different names, has not been diagnosed. So doctors do not prescribe specific treatment; patients are simply being advised to take Paracetamol and Vitamin B-complex tablets.

A five-member expert team from the Central Government arrived in Kottayam, one of the hardest-hit districts, on July 15 to take stock of the situation.

According to the Kerala government’s estimates, around 31,000 people are down with viral fever in Pathanamthitta district and 77,000 in Kottayam district alone, and it is spreading fast to other parts of Kerala.

State Health Minister P K Sreemathy said that, in June 2007, the number of suspected chikungunya cases was very high, with Kottayam reporting the highest number of 6,021 patients followed by Pathanamthitta with 2,516. From July 2007 till date, there were only 242 cases reported from Kottayam and 129 in Pathanamthitta.

She added that a total of 193 people died of the epidemic fever in Kerala in 2007, with Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts together accounting for 161 lives lost.

Health experts have blamed the unpardonable absence of efforts by the government machinery to clean up the mosquito-breeding areas and an ineffective health system for the high number of deaths. Public health in Kerala, they say, is in grave danger and health management woefully ineffective.

While the coalition Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of Kerala has been sluggish in combating the epidemic even at the later stage of the outbreak, the two factions of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in the State, the main partner in the coalition, are busy fighting between themselves for supremacy.